The Puffer Forum

Hi All-

I am hoping someone can help me. I bought 2 baby F8 puffers this past weekend. I am quarantining them in a 5.5 gallon tank. They will be housed permanently in a 37 gallon as soon as QT is over. One of the F8's started spinning as if he was chasing his tail today and now he is having trouble swimming. He just kind of rolls. He has no visible sign of illness, his poo is brown so I don't think he has parasites. The PH in the tank is 7.0, the ammonia is at 0ppm, the nitrates are 0ppm , the nitrites are 0ppm. Does anyone have any idea what could be wrong with this little guy? I don't know how to treat him and I'm really worried he won't make it. This tank is fully cycled and I do 50 % water changes a week on it.

Thanks for your help,
Nikki

Do you have these in Brackish water? They need to be slowly acclaimatised to a salinty of 1:005-1:008. They are often sold as freshwater fish but in fact are much better and healthier in low end brackish water. All you need is some marine salt mix, NOT AQUARIUM SALT, and over a few weeks bring the salinity up to the figures quoted above. You will need a low end hydrometer to read the levels of salinity too.

If the fish are already in salt water then I beg your pardon but this is often the common mistake with these fish. The other factor could be the cramped Q tank. How big are they and are they definately F8? Many LFS are woefully inept at ID-ing puffers. Post pics if you are not sure and check this link for more info. Hope that helps http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/ug. ... ocellatus/

Hi there-
Thanks for your reply. I am aware these guys do better in brackish. However, they came from a fresh water tank and so for their QT I put them in fresh water. I planned to use very low end brackish water once they are moved to the 37 gallon I have waiting for them. These are definitely F8's as my boyfriend has a lot of experience with puffers and he identified them. As for the QT tank they are tiny F8's about 1.5 ". I guess I will wait for my boyfriend to get home from work and see what he says. I did a 25 % water change just in case. I hope I did not stress the little guy by doing the water change. I just felt like I should do something.

a water change is always a good idea

You sound like you know what you are doing so see what other half says and if there are any more problems you know where we are.

when you plan to rasie the salinity do it by 0.02 per week and things will get super in a few weeks

Thanks for your help. The puffer died a few minutes ago I just wish I knew what did it .

Oh dear, I'm so sorry to hear that

How's the other one? I would see if you can get a refund from LFS if I were you. Where they feeding ok?

Hi -

Thanks for your replies. They were eating fine I had them on a diet of live black worms. I am on the phone with my boyfriend. He is actually the Mod Nick here. He always shows me pics of Cloney. You have one of the cutest puffers ever!

Nikki

Oh thank you very much.

So saying your boyfreind has a lot of experience would bbe an understatement then!!!

Pass on my condolences

Will do !

We're both very sad about little Riley. He was active, curious, and his poo was perfect, I thought we'd really lucked out with him. I was much more worried about Velvet, his tank mate, who was scratched up from a coral collision in the store tank and was a bit skinnier. I don't suspect digestive track parasites, but I wonder if he might have had other types of parasites... I was going to give the pair a precautionary flubenol treatment this weekend, just because they're wild caught fish. We were both taken by surprise that something happened to him, and Velvet is perfectly healthy in the same ideal parameter water.

It really does suck mate, if only they could tell us what is wrong