Kimmers HELP!

[gwenkat]

Boots, my smaller puffer is sick. He is laying on the bottom and not swimming. He is barely alive. He was fine last night. This morning I didn't see him, but he has been more shy than P-Diddy so I didn't think anything of it. He has turned a darker color. P-Diddy is fine. Same color and swimming freely. What's wrong? Can I save him?

Nitrates - 40
Nitrites - 0
Ph - 7
temp - 72

[paulie]

Sorry to hear that he aint doing well. hopefully he will snap out of it. Ive gotten a few fish like that before and most of them came threw so good luck. did u make sure that nobody is picking on him? I will ask around and if i can find any info for u i will let u know. good luck and let us know how things go.

[gwenkat]

Thanks Paulie. There is only one other puffer and an oto in the tank. The pther puffer isn't anywhere near him. I hope he makes it. We lost a guppy this morning and I don't want to try to explain another fish disappearing to my 4 year old.

[gwenkat]

Well, Boots the puffer didn't make it. He past away yesterday morning. Now P-Diddy is all alone. I fed him some mysis shrimp, but I am not sure he is eating them. I defroated them and squirted a few in the tank. Hope I am feeding them right. Can I use one cube more than once if I keep it in the refridgerator? If he is not eating the shrimp, there are snails in the tank too. His little belly seems full though. I just don't want to lose him too.

[kimmers318]

gwenat...your nitrates are a little high....start with your water change to bring that down. I see you posted nitrites, but not ammonia, so I hope you are checking for that also. I know you wanted puffs for this tank, and it will be the perfect size once you get all settled down, don't fret, sometimes you get a fish that just isn't as healthy as the others. What did you do to cycle this tank, or was it already cycled? Puffs can be pretty sensitive, and unfortunately, with them becoming more popular you are going to see some negatives in the health of the fish as suppliers try to keep up with demand. We will move on from the loss of the 1 puff, and do what we can to keep pdiddy around...later you can add more until you get the pair/trio you want.
Snails and bloodworms (frozen) are the favorites, so until the snails are gone, you probably won't see him eat anything else, he will keep his belly full. Make sure you are regularly clearing the dead shells out of the water, they have a tendency to still have flesh in them which I am sure you can figure can cause problems with your water. I have found that using the hose from my gravel vac as a siphon without the vac piece attached works great for siphoning snail shells...just make sure you don't get a curious puff, it has been known to happen :)
Since you have only the 1 puff, you may want to opt for the sheets of bloodworms rather than the cubes, you break off a small piece instead of having to thaw out an entire cube. I use the cubes because all of my fish love bloodworms, and with 8 tanks there is not a problem feeding the whole cube every morning. My puffs get probably 7 a piece, the frogs clean up any leftovers and the rest is shared in the other tanks. I do have several fish who you need to watch their protein intake (like the bettas) for bloat issues, so I feed the flake/pellets first and the bloodworms after and so far haven't had any issues.
As long as pdiddy has a nice belly, skip a couple of days of feeding and observe that he is still getting his fill on snails. A snail only diet is not optimal, but until he realizes the "dropper from the sky" has those yummy bloodworms he may ignore it until he gets hungry. Once he gets a taste of bloodworms regularly I doubt you will have problems. My puffs come running anytime I get near the tank hoping for the bloodworms. They will nip at the dropper trying to pull the worms out! I use one of those bulb droppers you can buy at any place, they are usually sold to measure liquid meds for children, and all of our fish know it means something good.
Concentrate on getting this puff and the tank as healthy as possible and then move on to adding other puffs. It is sad that you lost one, but may not have been your fault. When you are ready to move on, be prepared to have territorial issues, pdiddy may not accept a new tankmate. I solved this with my Missy by separating the tank for about 10 days giving the new puffs a chance to get healthy and everyone could see each other, but not fight. When I removed the divider I did a water change and rearranged all decor, essentially creating a whole new tank for everyone. They now live in harmony. The first tankmate I tried for Missy, all went well for about a day and a half, then they had a huge fight that I can only describe as looking like the alligator roll when you see an alligator kill, and the new puff hid in a corner, refused to eat and I lost her.
Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner, but I was out of town.

[gwenkat]

Thanks Kimmers. The tank was already well established. I have since done a water change and everything looks good. Don't remember exact numbers and I am at work. :) I will look into the bloodworms. I also tried baby brine shrimp since the cubes are smaller. I cut it up in 4ths and give him that. He seems to eat those ok. Thank you for all your advice. I plan on waiting awhile before I get another puffer. I saw some at the store the other say, but there were a couple dead ones in the tank, so I am passing on those.

[kimmers318]

Hadn't heard from ya in awhile about pdiddy....hope all is going well. As for the brine shrimp...not exactly very nutritious as a staple so make sure you get the bloodworms. Don't know if you have a petsmart near you, but they usually have the hikari brand that you can get in sheets for smaller portions. I would imagine by now the snails have been cleared from the tank and pdiddy is ready for other food and maybe even some tankmates???!!!