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tdawg57

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Okay I know i'm not supposed to put this post in here and it would most likely be in the oddball section. However this forum is not allowing me to post anywhere else but here and this is an emergency!!! I have a sick puffer. He's been missing all day and I just found him folded in half with his nose in the gravel. I was told that I had been lied to by PetCo and that these fish will need to be moved to a marine salt tank as they grow old, but I've only had them for a week now. They are spotted puffers and are in my freshwater tank with aquarium salt added. One of them is as happy and healthy as can be, the other is not so good as you can tell. If someone knows how to move this post to a better forum please do so and thanks so much for the help, you guys are great.

Trevor :sad:
 
Hi tdawg57 :)

I'll move this thread for you so you'll start to get responses, but in the meanwhile go to your email and click on the link in the email we sent you. That should help you get authorized to post. :nod:
 
tdawg57 said:
Okay I know i'm not supposed to put this post in here and it would most likely be in the oddball section. However this forum is not allowing me to post anywhere else but here and this is an emergency!!! I have a sick puffer. He's been missing all day and I just found him folded in half with his nose in the gravel. I was told that I had been lied to by PetCo and that these fish will need to be moved to a marine salt tank as they grow old, but I've only had them for a week now. They are spotted puffers and are in my freshwater tank with aquarium salt added. One of them is as happy and healthy as can be, the other is not so good as you can tell. If someone knows how to move this post to a better forum please do so and thanks so much for the help, you guys are great.

Trevor  :sad:
puffers can be highly sensitive to a buil up of nitrates in a fish tank . Do you have any uneaten food in your tank? fish waist ?
HOW BIG IS YOUR TANK ? Have you done any partial water changes .

Are your 2 the same species . Some puffers need salt and some do not , . But most of all they need clean water as free of nitrates as you can get . Try to i.d your puffers if you can , scientific names will help , there are alot of good puffer people on this forum willing to help you ..
 
Not sure the exact type of puffer, I'll call PetCo tomorrow and find out. They did say that they were brackish. Could to much salt be a problem. I have a 6 gallon tank and am purchasing and new 10 Gallon this coming weekend. The water is clean, just yesterday I mixed around the gravel to get the waste up and through the filter. I did about a 10% water change yesterday mainly becuse I had to move some agressive cichlids so i replaced the water which was taken to move them. The sick puffer has lost color and is normally white underneath on his belly, but he's turning dark and looks sickly. Hope this helps some. Also the temp of my tank is around 78, should that be different. I'm really new to puffers and brackish fish. So any advice would do me well. Thanks in advance.

Trevor
 
tdawg57 said:
Not sure the exact type of puffer, I'll call PetCo tomorrow and find out. They did say that they were brackish. Could to much salt be a problem. I have a 6 gallon tank and am purchasing and new 10 Gallon this coming weekend. The water is clean, just yesterday I mixed around the gravel to get the waste up and through the filter. I did about a 10% water change yesterday mainly becuse I had to move some agressive cichlids so i replaced the water which was taken to move them. The sick puffer has lost color and is normally white underneath on his belly, but he's turning dark and looks sickly. Hope this helps some. Also the temp of my tank is around 78, should that be different. I'm really new to puffers and brackish fish. So any advice would do me well. Thanks in advance.

Trevor
What other fish do you have with them ? You keep them in a six gal ? did petco sell you the tank and the fish ? Honestly 6 gal is not big enough . How long has it been set up ? Do you understand the nitrogen cycle ? I'm not trying to insult you just trying to get a grasp of your knowledge base , and maybe I can help you . Try and search your puffer over the net . I don't know what to say about petco . you need that bigger tank and the sooner the better .

too much salt could be a problem if you were misinformed or if you flat put too much in . look through some the posts here some people post pictures , search this sight maybe you can i.d them sooner . good luck .
 
Trust me, I take nothing that you said as an insult. I'm very new to fish. Unfortunately I don't know what the nitrogen cycle is. The tank has been set up for over 2 months and had previously housed some Guppies and 2 Gold fish, until I saw the puffer's and had to have some. I went down to a local pet store who specializes in fish and gave my puffers to them. I am still interested in ordering freshwater puffers, maybe some dwarf puffers to keep in here, what about figure 8? I'll look around the forum for setting up a tank. Anyone know where a good site is to order puffers? Thanks once again. I am a real newbie here, but hopefully will someday be helping people out as well.

Trevor
 
tdawg57 said:
Trust me, I take nothing that you said as an insult. I'm very new to fish. Unfortunately I don't know what the nitrogen cycle is. The tank has been set up for over 2 months and had previously housed some Guppies and 2 Gold fish, until I saw the puffer's and had to have some. I went down to a local pet store who specializes in fish and gave my puffers to them. I am still interested in ordering freshwater puffers, maybe some dwarf puffers to keep in here, what about figure 8? I'll look around the forum for setting up a tank. Anyone know where a good site is to order puffers? Thanks once again. I am a real newbie here, but hopefully will someday be helping people out as well.

Trevor
the best thing I can say is do your homework . Find a fish your interested in keeping and find as much information as you can before you actually have the fish . I know how hard this can be to do [ 30 years in the hobby ] . You will most likely find conflicting information , go with the majority .

You should if you don't have a beginers book on fish keeping , go to the librery , seach the internet . This site has a wealth of information .


There are at least a couple of good explainations on the nitrogen cycle in this forum . search " nitrogen cycle ". search it on "google" . then come back an ask questions about what you don't understand . post them in beginers questions or tropical chit chat , that would most likely be best . good luck and everyone helps
 
For your tanks, because they are smaller, you should really be looking at dwarf puffers. These are great fish and easier to keep than other puffers.

In a 6 gallon tank I would recommend no more than 2 of these, in the 10 gallon, no more than 3. However you may be able to add a couple of other fish in the same tank if you are VERY diligent with water changes, cleaning and not over feeding.

Give them lots of caves and plants to hide in that way they don't chase each other.

Be careful what other fish you add with dwarf puffers because they tend to be fin nippers, which means any fish with long fins will loose it's fins very quickly. It may actually be better to make it a species tank just to be on the safe side.

Don't add the dwarf puffers until a week or so after you finish cycling your new tanks because they are very sensitive and will never make it through the cycle.

You'll also want to make sure that you get all of the salt out of your tanks before adding a dwarf puffer because they are strictly a freshwater fish.

I've been to several different Petsmarts that sell dwarf puffers so you might want to try there.
 
Ok, Well I did some research and read up on the Nitrogen Cycle and some tip's and no no's about starting up a tank. My tank has been up and running for about 7 weeks now, so the cycle stage should be pretty much over. I am going to by some test kits tomorrow to find out for sure. I have no fish in there right now and had added salt in the past for the puffer's. I would like to go back to fresh water. What is the best way of doing this? Should I empty the tank and refill it completely, add some hearty fish and keep my bio weel and filter as a jumpstart? If this is the best way, how hearty are molly's? Or should I just do about 15 - 20% water changes perhaps daily or ever otherday to bring the salt content back down? I do love puffers, but this 6 gallon is too small. I'm purchasing a 10 gallon this weekend and will get it started for a month or so before I buy me some dwarf puffers. What would be good fish to start that tank off with, I want some that the puffers would get along with. I'm only thinking 2 puffers, just because they are nippy, but i do love the little guys. Thanks for the advice.

Trevor
 
If you're doing dwarf puffers the 6 gallon eclipse tank would be ok for two of them. But of course, don't let me stop you from getting a new tank :). I actually have 2 dwarf puffers in an eclipse 6 right now.

How long has your tank been without fish? If the tank goes too long without (don't know how long???) there will be no ammonia (fish poop) in the water to feed the good bacteria on your bio-wheel. What this means is that when you start adding fish again you'll go through another cycle. Somebody please confirm that this is correct or correct me if i'm wrong!!

It's really better for the fish to do a fishless cycle, there's a pinned topic in the beginners forum about this.

However if you want to cycle with fish supposedly zebra danios are some of the best.

I would just empty all of the water and start with just fresh water (make sure you dechlorinate it!!!).

You'll really need to get those test kits before you'll be able to tell when your tank is done cycling, simply just waiting a month is not enough. Don't get the puffers until you know for sure that your nitrites and ammonia are down to 0.

I'm sooo glad to hear that you are actively doing research and are truly interested in making the fish happy and such! Fish keeping takes patience but it is so rewarding, like when you feed your dwarf puffers and you can almost see them smiling back at you :p.

Here's two good links on dwarf puffers:

####

http://www.rr.iij4u.or.jp/~kohda/en/en-dwarfpuffer.htm

SOMEBODY PLEASE CORRECT ME IF I'VE SAID ANYTHING WRONG. I don't want to give him bad advice :). Feel special tdwag57, this is the first message where I've acually given somebody else advice :).

Edit: don't know why the first link won't work. It's "www.dwarpuffers.com"
 
Scott,
The first link you gave worked and was a ton of help. I love puffers, though I am still inclinded to the spotted puffer. I will need a bigger tank to house them. So for my 10 gallon I'll stick with about 2 or 3 dwarf puffers. Do you know if Mollies are okay to keep with them. I read that they are okay to keep with spotted puffers because they will give back whatever the puffers try to do to them and they will eventually learn to live (ignore) each other peacfully. Is this true? If so can they be kept with dwarf puffers? That would be great because I think Mollies are a beautiful fish as well. Also bumble bee gobies do to their nature of being quick and good at hiding are okay to keep with spotted, what about dwarfs?. And is a 10 gallon big enough for 1 figure 8? Also I have never had live plants in a tank before. How hard is this to set up and what should I learn about lighting. Of course I know this is probably a more complicated question than I assume it to be. So a point in the right direction of where to start the learning process on live plants would be great help. I am excited to learn about fish. One thing that really frustrates me is people who think they can "Do without Learning". Bugs the crap out of me.

On another note, my 6 gallon has only not had fish for one day. I think I'm going to take your advice and empty the water and start over with fresh water. One thing I read was the amount of gravel in your tank. Right now I have about 2 inches, mabye a little more in places. I heard this was too much. What would your reccomend? 1/2 to 1 inch? Also does the normal gravel you use with fake plants work with live plants?

I know that I have a ton of questions and that another forum would be a better place to ask. But since we have this conversation going I just keep replying. Let me know if I should post elsewhere as not to make people unhappy.

Trevor :hyper:
 

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