Death of a DP

[cutechic]

I got 2 dwarf puffers yesterday, and put them in my (cycled) densly-planted, 5.5g tank. It has 8 caves in it. I acclimatized them for 35 minutes.

The smaller of the two (1.5 cm from head to tail) started sucking on the glass when I released them, and his mouth looked kind of dark when he stopped; other than that, he looked fine. The puffers were completely ignoring each other, so I turned off the lights for the night.

Today, I found the smaller one dead. His belly is really swollen & yellow; eyes are enlarged; fungus (?) on top of his head.

pH: 6.8 (the pH at the lfs is 7.0)
ammonia & nitrite: 0
nitrate: 10 ppm

All the DPs in the tank looked healthy & were active... do you think my other DP killed this one?

 

[Fish00]

5g is to small for 2

 

[MAM]

actually, 5 gal is fine for 2.

as for you question cc, i'm not really sure what's going on, but chances are the puffer already had some health issue. its not uncommon for dps to have internal problems when you get them at the lfs. your best bet is to get those with non-sunken bellies (but not bloated...), and hope for the best. i don't think the other puffer did anything. keep an eye on him............. wish i could tell you more.....

 

[Fish00]

They could have been male.

 

[Dwarfs]

If they fought there would have been nipped fins, scarred bellies etc

 

[LadyMinion]

I'm gonna have to agree with Fish00 in that 5gals is too small for 2 of these guys. However that isn't likely to be anything to do with the death in such a short time.

Most likely the puffer was already ill and the basic stress of moving home was too much to take. Unless there are visible bite wounds on him, I doubt the other puffer did anything to him, although he might have chased him and been generally bullying.

Keep a close eye on the one you have left for any signs of illness.

 

[cutechic]

Thanks for all the comments.

I was told by several people that 5g is fine for two DPS, providing there are 2-3 caves per puffer, plants to break the line of sight, etc.