I feel horrible!

[AmberC]

I just had the little testing strips to test the ph and what not in my water. Well I didn't know that these were crap. I got myself a little dwarf puffer three days ago and hes not doing so great. I can tell the poor little thing is unhappy so I brought in a water sample today and my pH was WAY to high for it. It was too high for all my fish apparantly, but the only one its affecting is my puffer.

The puffer is the whole reason I went to live plants. I love the little puffers and have been wanting one for a while. Did all kinds of research and stuff. Now the poor little guy is not doing well. Hopefully I wont have to say to it. I really love my little puffer.

They gave me some acid butter to fix the pH in the tank. (I just got home from my fish store) and I did a 25% water change and added the butter. Hopefully it wont take too long to fix cause the poor baby puff is just laying on the bottom of the tank. I feel like a horrible fish owner!!

 

[AmberC]

I guess this should have gone in chit chat. Sorry mods!! )

 

[Sinuhe]

Do you mean buffer? I'm not an expert, but I think that changing pH chemically is not a good option in a long term, because it's hard to keep stable. How high was your pH exactly? Generally a stable pH is better for fish than a swinging one.

 

[Phantom Thief]

Hi

Also, if you suddenly change the ph by too much, your already shocked fish will go into a second shock. And when the buffer's done for, yet ANOTHER shock if its ur tapwaters thats the problem. Be careful what you do. Go check your tapwaters ph first before taking anymore action. And, if possible, let your poor puffer reside at another aquarium of better ph, but not too much difference! Remember my earlier warning. Dont worry that you're a bad fish owner, everyone makes mistakes, but only a GOOD person will try to mend them like your doing.

P.T.

 

[Lithril]

K I've answered this in ur other posting in the emergency section, personally I don't think its ur pH unless its 9 or above, adding pH altering chemicals often causes more harm than good...but hey the lfs got a sale out of it (a reason why most ppl on here never trust anything they tell u). Thing is if the LFS is in the same area as you, he'll have same pH in tap water unless he uses RO water so he already KNOWS pretty much what the pH is going to be but by testing it and putting a surprised expression on... how many pH altering kits do you think he sells to beginners???

U need to tell us ur ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels, with the symptons you've explained they're much more important than pH.

 

[Phantom Thief]

Gah (shakes head and slaps himself)

I cant believe how many times i've forgotten to ask bout ammonia and nitrites and nitrates and then Lith swoops in for the kill. Anyways, we need the results ASAP. Also, what other fish do you have? Unless puffers are especially vulnerable to ammonia, nitrites and nitrates, they will be in danger soon too. The water change will keep things temporarily under control. 10-15% water change everyday. Test and post your water results daily. One last thing, how old's the tank?

P.T.

 

[AmberC]

Ok... so here is what I have done:

First I want to say something about my lfs. They were not just trying to make a sale. I know these people well. They aren't in the same area as me. I have to drive 30 min to an hour to get there. (The price I pay to going to a good store) I do trust them. I have known them for a long time. They didn't tell me to buy that stuff to fix the pH. I asked what I would use to fix that and she said that was the best stuff. I do know where you guys are coming from tho and I thank you for the warning.

Today I went out and bought a full test kit. Ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH and GH and it also had high pH test in it, but I dont think I am going to have to use that.

I tested all of them. Nitrite was 0ppm, nitrate was 0ppm, pH was about 7.2, GH was 71.6 and ammonia was between .50 and 1.0 ~~ but also know that my tank hasn't even been set up for a full week yet. I probably didn't get it fully cycled and I am thinking that the biological filter needs to kick in (as I read that can take 4-6 weeks and the ammonia will kinda jump around until it kicks in) It was suggested to make 1/3 water changes to keep the ammonia stable. I have not tested my tap water yet.. I will do that and let you all know the results.

Oh yeah.. when my lfs tested my ph... it was off the chart. She showed me. I watched as she did it too.

My plans to fix this. I am going to make 1/3 water changes every other day to try to help with the ammonia, and I am going to use the acid butter to bring down the pH, but I am going to not use the suggested amount.. I am going to use LESS than that and bring my pH down even slower to 7. The puffers need at least 6.8 to be happy so I figured to keep the guppy and corys happy I'll try to keep my pH at 7. I do want to get another puffer, as the other passed . But I am going to wait until my parameters are all stable. All of my other fish seem to be doing really well. My corys and gouramis are forever swimming along. They are very active. (Especially the corys and ESPECIALLY when I come up to the tank )

Thats what I have planned right now, but I would still like to hear all your thoughts and suggestions.
Thanks!

Oh by the way... can you explain the buffer? I have heard of this but I forgot.

 

[Lithril]

A buffer is a mixture of chemicals that keep the pH stable, they're normally designed to keep the water at a specfic pH.

I keep Colomesus Asellus (SA Puffers) in a pH nearly 8 and they cope fine with it.

Puffers are quite sensitive to ammonia/nitrite and if you've got an ammonia reading of .5-1 then ur gonna get problems, puffers are defiantely not suitable for cycling a tank. The reason you havent got any nitrites/nitrates is because your tank hasn't started cycling at all. Read the topic at the pinned section in Beginners on New tank syndrome.

You're going to have to keep a really close eye on your tank and do very frequent water changes otherwise you'll start losing others... possibly the cories first as ammonia/nitrites can collect at the bottom of the tank.

Urrmmm, just seen the other fish you've got in the tank, do you know anything about puffers?? Go to oddballs and there is two pinned topics on puffers... I wouldn't put a puffer in a community tank (especially dwarfs), as soon as the puffer gets a bit older you'll most likely end up losing most of your fish.

 

[Sinuhe]

pH being off the chart is not necessarily alarming, because different pH tests have different ranges. I always use the high range pH test, because mine is around 8.0. 7.2 should be fine for most fish, but I don't know about puffers. Like said before, it's better to have stable, even if a bit off the recommended value pH than an up and down swinging one, that's stressful for the fish.

 

[AmberC]

Lithril

I do know about the dwarf puffers. I did massive research on them before buying. There are like 5 different types of dwarf puffers and the one I got is the least aggressive and NEEDS a pH of about 6.8. The puffer has sadly already passed. I am guessing its due to pH AND the ammonia. There was something wrong with the swim bladder that last day too which I was told was being warped due to the pH (but it was probably the ammonia) I thought all my parameters were fine because of the strips I was using, but apparantly they weren't working. I am extremely about the loss of my puffer. Like I said tho, I did research and found that good tank mates for them are the dwarf gouramis (chunas) I found that more often you have more problems with you have them with their own kind. I have heard many stories of people having ONLY dwarf puffers and one of them (no matter what you do) will just kill all the rest. (the territorial male) I have heard stories of people with lots of them and only them in the tank and never have a problem, so it can go either way. I do appreciate your trying to help.


So you think a third water change every other day for a few weeks until my biological filter kicks in will be good?

 

[AmberC]

This is off of one of the many sites I found info on the puffers on:

Temperament
Do not be mistaken by their size. These fish can be aggresive amongst themselves and in particular males may fight over territory. A lone male and females may be kept together.

Due to their size these fish may be kept with similar sized or slightly larger non aggresive fish. They may nip the fins of other fish though.
 

Puffer page...