HELP Qucik

[KneeKickLou]

I just got home today and one of my new puffers looks sick. His sides seem sucked in I tested the water and got PH - 8.2 Ammonia - .50 Nitrites - 1.0 and Nitrates - 20 so I did an 20% water change right away. He seems to have perked up. He was just laying on the bottom now he's swimming around. Has anyone ever seen this before in puffer. They are eating well they quickly chomp up all the blood worms I give them. I hope he will be OK. Any suggestions please. The other 2 look good. Came right up to the front when I got home. Any help would be appriciated. Thanks

[Abbeys_Mom]

You haven't had him long, my guess is that it might still be stressed from the environment change between the store tank and your tank.

[KneeKickLou]

I hope so, I'll try to keep you guys as up to date as I can.

[jeffs99dime]

8.2ph is too high for a puffer. i would also suggest doing at least a 50% water change to cut the levels in half

[kimmers318]

His sides seem sucked in I tested the water and got PH - 8.2 Ammonia - .50 Nitrites - 1.0 and Nitrates - 20 so I did an 20% water change right away. He seems to have perked up.

It is just as likely as anything else that your puff is suffering from the effects of an apparently uncycled aquarium. You should not have readings of ammonia or nitrites if your aquarium is properly cycled. This is why after a water change he perked up....you diluted the toxins for now. When did you get the tank....and when did you add fish? Puffers are extremely sensitive to ammonia and don't do well in a cycling aquarium. Read up on cycling and your puffers.

As for the ph....yes it is a little high, but trying to lower it will just cause the buffers in your water to bring it back up, then you will try to lower it again and the buffers naturally in your tap water will bring it back up. The swings in Ph will be much harder on them than allowing them to adjust to the higher PH. I am not familiar with specific care on leopard puffs, but the puffs I have been researching and familiarizing myself with are okay with ph levels of 6.0-7.8 or 6.0-8.0 listed as their ph requirements. Your ph right now is the least of your concerns. Keep an eye on those water parameters, do water changes and be patient and diligent and you might get them thru this. I would advise though that rather than put them thru cycling you return them to the store....fishless cycle and then bring home your puffs.

Another consideration is that internal parasites seems to be fairly common in new puff purchases, which looking as if wasting away even while eating well is a symptom, until they get really sick from the parasite, so that is a possibility.

[Lady Hobbs]

You got good advice from the puffer expert, Kimmers. (Her favorite fish.) I would think that uncycled tank is making him very ill. Most fish can not take any toxins in the water at all. I would suggest small daily water changes until you get a reading of 0 ammonia and 0 nitrites. Since your tank is not yet cycled, do no gravel cleaning or change the filter media, either.

[KneeKickLou]

I cycled the tank using media from my 55 gallon. When I tested the water I had no ammonia and no nitrites. I changed out more of the water last night to drop some of the levels so we shall see what happens. Thanks for all the good information everyone.

[newt0524]

you had no ammonia or nitrites because there was none present at any time in the tank. with out these, there would have been no food for the processing bacteria and thus, they died.

how much time between setting up the tank (with the media from your other tank) and putting in the puffers was there. even with the media, there is still about a 2 week minimum breakin, and in that time you have to provide an ammonia source equal to the fish that are going in there.

newt

[Lady Hobbs]

Everyone here is very correct. You need to test daily until you have your cycle complete. Tests can change very quickly so check on those every day until your cycle is finished.

pH will also jump around in an uncycled tank. Test your water to see what it reads right from the tap. This will give you a base on what you can count on.