Help!! My little dwarf puffer is really sick!!
Forum rules
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
Help!! My little dwarf puffer is really sick!!
I purchased two dwarf puffers from PetSmart two days ago. They are in a freshwater 2 gallon tank with a filter system, gravel, and some live plants. When I put them in they were happily gliding around looking bouncy and alert. Later that evening, I tried to feed them the flake food I bought them (which they readily ignored), but I had backup. I proceeded to put in some thawed bloodworms. The puffers ignored the food. In the middle of the night I woke up and checked on them. Both were laying at the bottom, looking sullen and sad. The next morning they were breathing heavily and laying at the bottom of the tank (it looked like they would cough every once in awhile). Then something really weird happened. The skin from around the end of one of the puffer's tail started to come off. I panicked and looked online, but found nothing. Earlier today I found him dead. Now the other puffer is laying at the bottom, and occasionally jerks around acting like he has nerve damage or something. He swims right into the filter, but just floats around (he is very weak). I finally turned off the filter and gave him a 15 min. salt bath (which I read could help). He looks like he is about to die, and it is truely a depressing thing to experience. I need help-and fast! I love my little puffer, and will do anything to help him. I really hope that I was not the one that caused him to be like this. I think he was sick from the start. There were two dead puffers in the tank from which I purchased him from, I knew better than to buy fish from a tank where deceased were present, but I guess I thought I would be saving him. Now he is dieing, someone help...
Re: HELP!!!! MY DWARF PUFFER IS REALLY SICK!!!!!!!!!
Ok, I see some problems here.
1. Purchasing from a tank that already had a few dead fish was a bad idea. You should have waited for a while and revisit the LFS to see how things are.
2. 2 gallon for DP is a big a straight NO! DPs are very active and intelligent fish, also very sensitive to water conditions. The best stocking ratio is 5g per fish.
3. DPs are strickly freshwater fish. They cannot and will not tolerate salt. Do not put it in salt.
4. DPs do not eat food such as flake food. They like to eat live fish or things such as blood worms. Also, snails are a must to wear down their teeth as teeth of puffers does not stop growing.
What are the readings in your tank? A 50% water change would help.
I urge you to do some more reading on these fish. http://www.dwarfpuffers.com is a very good site that would be of great help. It also has a forum which might be of great help.
1. Purchasing from a tank that already had a few dead fish was a bad idea. You should have waited for a while and revisit the LFS to see how things are.
2. 2 gallon for DP is a big a straight NO! DPs are very active and intelligent fish, also very sensitive to water conditions. The best stocking ratio is 5g per fish.
3. DPs are strickly freshwater fish. They cannot and will not tolerate salt. Do not put it in salt.
4. DPs do not eat food such as flake food. They like to eat live fish or things such as blood worms. Also, snails are a must to wear down their teeth as teeth of puffers does not stop growing.
What are the readings in your tank? A 50% water change would help.
I urge you to do some more reading on these fish. http://www.dwarfpuffers.com is a very good site that would be of great help. It also has a forum which might be of great help.
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Nick
- Former Staff Member
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- Joined: Sun Oct 22, 2006 8:47 pm
- My Puffers: Mine:
GSPs - Shakespeare and Jillybean
F8 - Velvet
My fiance:
DP - Emma Goldman
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- Location: Middletown, CT
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Re: Help!! My little dwarf puffer is really sick!!
Your tank is too small for even one dwarf puffer, and it has not been cycled. You need to stop with salt baths and do 75% water changes every single day, as ammonia and nitrites, deadly poisons to all fish but particularly to puffers will kill them otherwise. The skin problem is from ammonia, puffers are scaleless fish, and their skin burns with extended contact with ammonia. Try to get a much larger tank ASAP, and be prepared to do daily 50% or more water changes for a month to two months until the tank is cycled, unless you can find something called biospira, which will get the job done right away. Don't both with other cycling products(bactinettes MIGHT work, but I've never seen them) just keep up with the water changes if you can't find Biospira.
No matter how magnificent your successes or devastating your failures, the worlds' approximately 5 billion impoverished people could not possibly care less.
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Boxermom
- Former Staff Member
- Posts: 2182
- Joined: Sun Mar 12, 2006 8:34 pm
- Location: Wisconsin
- Contact:
Re: Help!! My little dwarf puffer is really sick!!
I merged the responses from your two posts. Please post only once.
Tina
Puffers: Auriglobus silus x1, Tetraodon travancoricus x1, Tetraodon turgidus x1, Tetraodon miurus x1, Tetraodon nigroviridis x2, Tetraodon baileyi x2, Tetraodon lineatus x1, Tetraodon palembangensis x1
Puffers: Auriglobus silus x1, Tetraodon travancoricus x1, Tetraodon turgidus x1, Tetraodon miurus x1, Tetraodon nigroviridis x2, Tetraodon baileyi x2, Tetraodon lineatus x1, Tetraodon palembangensis x1
Re: Help!! My little dwarf puffer is really sick!!
thank you so much for all of your help, you guys are very supportive, I greaty appreciate your help.
Bianca
Bianca