On friday I was at my lfs and i saw a 10gal tank for cheap. So i bought it and went to get some dwarf puffers.

I set the tank up, acclimatised the puffs and let them lose. I put a few ramshorn snails in, and two ghost shrimp.

They were fine for about 48 hours, then one was on the bottom, not looking too well. This puff has been on the bottom of the tank for three days now, she seems to be gasping, too. I've done daily water changes incase something was in the water, but no change. The other puff is fine.

Size: 10gal, heavily planted.
pH: 7.6
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0

Any idea what is wrong?

How long was this tank set up for?

It seems to be cycled, is it?

What your tap nitrate readings as 0 is very rare.
How did you cycle the tank.

Oh, i used mature media.

My tap reading for nitrate is under 5ppm but more them 1ppm lol. The colour is in between.

But I have a heavily planted tank.

This post has been edited by Esfa: Apr 30 2008, 08:33 PM

If the water quality is good it could be a parasite.
Check the gills over to see if there red and inflamed or pale with excess mucas.
What does the body of the fish look like, is it pale with excess mucas.

She doesn't seem too pale, but there is excess mucas

With the laboured breathing and excess mucas it sounds like a parasite might be involved.
Is there any signs of flicking and rubbing against objects.
How long did you climatise the fish for as also it can be ph shock.

Nope, no flicking or rubbing. She just lays there on the floor.

20 mins floating, then mixed a little bit of my water with theirs every 10 mins. After about an hour, i let them out.

Right then don't want to say parasites just yet as you usually see signs of flicking and rubbing.
The symtoms the fish is showing can be, bad water quality, ph shock, bacterial, to parasites.
The fish sounds in a bad way and to be honest it dosn't sound like it'going to make it.
Have you increased aeration in the tank.

This post has been edited by Wilder: Apr 30 2008, 09:11 PM

Yeah, someone suggested to me that the puffer might be suffering from lack of oxygen, so i moved the filter up a bit so there is more surface movement.

Should I just treat lightly with an anti-bacterial med, then?

H'es breathing heavy and meds don't help.
You could its down to you, but you must increase aeration in the tank as meds reduce 02 in the water.

I think i'll wait till the weekend and see if there's any improvement.

cheers for the help, you're invaluable to the forum.

Thanks.
Get back to the board if its start to infect more fish.
Good luck.

thanks.

Sorry to bring up an old topic, but was the end result? I'd hate to assume the worst...

I just got two dwarf puffers yesterday. while researching some info, I stumbled upon this. Hope everyone turned out okay


BobRoss