Pea Puffer Stopped Eating, Not Moving Much and Barrel Rolling

[ogelthorpe]

Hi all,
I have 3 pea puffers in a 10g and one of them stopped eating a few days ago, is breathing heavy, not moving much and I saw him barrel rolling this morning. I've had them for a couple of months and have been religiously monitoring water conditions, weekly 30-50% water changes, weekly cleanings, etc. Water parameters have remained perfect and are tested every day (0ppm ammonia, nitrites and less than 5ppm nitrates). PH is 7. Water temp has been a consistent 77 degrees F since I've had them. Other puffers are doing great and acting normal - nothing out of the ordinary with those ones as they are eating well and displaying usual behavior. Could it be a parasite and if so, what treatment would be recommended? Any thoughts would be awesome because I want to do everything I possibly can to help the little guy.

 

[Colin_T]

Barrel rolling is usually caused by an infection in the brain. There is no cure for it and the fish normally dies within a day or so of showing symptoms.

Dirty tanks, gravel and filters encourage this but it can also be caused by a virus or bacterial infection.

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WHAT TO DO NOW?
Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.

Add some salt, (see directions below).

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SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt) or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 2 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria, fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

When you first add salt, add the salt to a small bucket of tank water and dissolve the salt. Then slowly pour the salt water into the tank near the filter outlet. Add the salt over a couple of minutes.

 

[ogelthorpe]

Thanks very much for the advice!

 

[JenE1981]

Hi all,
I have 3 pea puffers in a 10g and one of them stopped eating a few days ago, is breathing heavy, not moving much and I saw him barrel rolling this morning. I've had them for a couple of months and have been religiously monitoring water conditions, weekly 30-50% water changes, weekly cleanings, etc. Water parameters have remained perfect and are tested every day (0ppm ammonia, nitrites and less than 5ppm nitrates). PH is 7. Water temp has been a consistent 77 degrees F since I've had them. Other puffers are doing great and acting normal - nothing out of the ordinary with those ones as they are eating well and displaying usual behavior. Could it be a parasite and if so, what treatment would be recommended? Any thoughts would be awesome because I want to do everything I possibly can to help the little guy.

Did he live???