Sad Looking Valentini Puffer..whats Wrong?

[poppyjaxon]

hello all and thankyou ahead of time to all that reply.

we have a valentini puffer, who has been in the tank for just over a week he was happy swimming and eating with out a problem and then this morning i come out and he was between to peices of rock. i thought maybe he was stuck and moved it to see he then tryed to jam himself between the rock and the bottom of the tank, and when i have fed all the fish he isnt interested at all. whats happening anyone??

checked all the amm, ph, nit and all and all are good though the ammonia is at .5

 

[shibby]

im gonna take a guess thats its because theres ammonia in the tank.

 

[Lynden]

Could be the ammonia, but it doesn't usually produce those kinds of effects. Most people just assume that ammonia will automatically kill their fish with random, indistinctive symptoms (such as jamming itself into a crevice), but in fact ammonia and nitrite poisoning produce nearly unmistakeable symptoms. These include heavy, fast breathing, "off" colouration, and eventually, gasping at the surface. Ammonia and nitrite poisoning affects all marine fish, and you will not see one fish affected while the others are fine.

Puffers are intelligent fish, and in speculation a bout of "depression" could be caused by complex chain of behavioural interactions with the other fish. In other words, I have no idea what your problem is. Perhaps wait a few more days to see what happens.

 

[fishmanjeff]

well the problem could be the tankmates if you have a moreso agresive feeders or even if your fish are on the large side that can also cause problems