The Puffer Forum

hi i need some help please. iv e had a mbu for about 3 years now,hes about 11 inches long from head to end of the tail. hes been fine,he still is,but about 4 weeks ago his belly started to grow. hes eating fine but his belly is getting bigger and bigger and i havent seen him go to the toilet either,that dosnt mean that he hasnt but normaly you can see shells on the floor that have came out??? i will post a picture on here later,ive just come back from holiday

Please answer all the questions in the 1st post of this forum.

0 ammonia
0 nitrite
nitrate 12ppm
hes feeding normally,although ive been advised not to feed him,so not been feed since last night.
normally had about 3-5cockles a day depending on the size of the cockles.
no changes in the tank at all.
regular water changes of 1 a week.
ive been on holiday for the last 17 days and he did have a bit of a large belly b4 i went away,but i put it down to that he had eaten to much,wrong am i.
tank has got an internal filter and 2 fluval 305 filters that r all good.
all other fish r fine,he seams fine aswell swimming around as normal,just has a big belly.
been told buy a fish shop that he could have bloat?
not sure what that is as cant seam to find out any thing on the internet.

For constipation, add 1tbsp/10g of Epsom salt. Add the same tomorrow.

and wgere will i get that? will be ok on other fish?

Get it at any drug store. Totally harmless to fish (what other fish?). I'd still like you to answer ALL the questions in the post above.

their is 2 clown loach and 5 neons in tank aswell
bad idea with that epsom salt,got sum last night put a table spoon in tank,woke up this morning earlier than normal(luckly)puffer bobbin up around tanl!!!!!!! not breathing alot!!!!
done a massive water change,looks alot better,breathing now and just laying on the bottom,trhat is normal.
still got the belly though.

sadly,he died sometime between 8 am and 10 am!! absoloutly gutted!!!
tank is odd, really cloudy,dont know if the puffer has excreted something in the tank after he died?
cleaned out all of my filter sand have done a big water change.
suppose time will tell,if anything else dies!

Sorry to hear that.

With any kind of salt, you can't add it directly to the tank. It needs to be dissolved first in declorinated water before adding it to the tank.

epson salt. i did dissolve in a tub with water from the tank,then added it to the tank.
my puffer,knife fish,3 neons, 2 silver foxes all dead.
tank well cloudy aswell.?

this is awful, I'm really sorry to hear this. Are you sure it was epsom salts you used?

It sounds to me that your tank has suffered a bacterial bloom so maybe the filters were not functioning properly. The bloated Mbu is an intrigue too. Could there be any other external poisons that could have got into the tank, it just seems very odd that the whole tank has crashed, what is the temp?

IM SOOOOOO GUTTED I TELL YOU THAT,I REALLY AM.
HE WAS SUCH A NICE FISH,GOT HIM WHEN HE WAS ABOUT AN INCH LONG AND WHEN HE DIED HE MUST OF BEEN 12-14 INCHES,VERY HEAVY TOO
WAS EPSOM SALT YES,TEMP WAS 27 C
AS I SAY HES BEEN FONE SINCE WE GOT HIM,NO PROBS AT ALL,AND WHAT WITH THE OTHER FISH DIEING,SOME OF THOSE WE HAD FOR AROUND 5 TO 6 YEARS!!!
SO SAD

What i dont understand is ive cleaned out my filters and done a huge water change,my tank is still very cloudy and has been running for about 6 hours and dosnt seam to be clearing that quick?
Its almost llike smoke? Odd!

The cloudiness is an indication of a bacterial bloom. Did you check the water parameters recently? Epsom salt should not have affected the biological filter like that.

27C is kinda warm.

could the cloudyness be something that the puffer excreted when he died?
they excrete chemicals when their stressed and when they puff up?