Help! Figure 8 puffer pacing and not eating
- Thread starter piffpuffer
- Start date
Neocaridina are quite easy to breed. All you need is a tank, some hiding spots, and a parent population. They are a bit more sensitive to params than most fish but still quite hardy imo.
The puffer should eventually take frozen, it just may take time.
The puffer should eventually take frozen, it just may take time.
Great! thanks for the advice! For frozens/freeze dried, they float around the surface instead of sinking to the bottom, does that affect whether a puffer eats it or not? Read that some fish get bladder syndrome because of eating surface food
I also noticed that my puffer consecutively nipped at a smoother cave exterior about 5 times, that was a bit odd to see haha is that abnormal behaviour for a puffer or was he foraging and thought there was food?
Update on his pacing: still doing so but much less and much slower than before
My puffers eat at the surface with no issues. I found that mine didn’t care for freeze dried nearly as much as frozen foods. Frozen tends to sink after a bit (especially once it’s caught in the current).
I try to feed floating foods to as many of my fish as possible - I’ve never had an issue with them ingesting too much air - its easier to clean up and keep from rotting.
Sometimes fish just nip at rocks just to do it. It’s possible it saw food that you couldn’t. I remember hearing reports of some species nipping at rocks to wear their beaks down, but I’m unsure of the validity.
You’ll soon see that puffers are an incredibly intelligent, self aware family of fish. A lot that you wouldn’t expect to see a fish do is totally normal for them (just for the sake of being weird).
I try to feed floating foods to as many of my fish as possible - I’ve never had an issue with them ingesting too much air - its easier to clean up and keep from rotting.
Sometimes fish just nip at rocks just to do it. It’s possible it saw food that you couldn’t. I remember hearing reports of some species nipping at rocks to wear their beaks down, but I’m unsure of the validity.
You’ll soon see that puffers are an incredibly intelligent, self aware family of fish. A lot that you wouldn’t expect to see a fish do is totally normal for them (just for the sake of being weird).
thank you so much, i really do appreciate your help! will update in the next few days, thanks so much again!
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More problems with his water in the quarantine tank!
I did the daily water change earlier today after feeding (eating normally and all discarded food gets taken out), as per usual, and changed out his deco to give him something new to explore. Prime arrived this morning so I immediately used that to dechlorinate the water, and also dissolved marine salt into the new water to raise the SG of his tank to 1.001 for a start. I waited about 8 hours for the salt to dissolve and to ensure the water was dechlorinated fully. I also added in another round of deworming treatment after the water change.
About 45 minutes after the water change, he was still pacing, much more frantically than usual, and darting around again, he completely stopped darting since the day before. Before the water change, he was much calmer with his pacing, and chilled at the bottom a lot more. So, i chalked it up to the stress of the new deco and water change, I don't have another tank for him to sit in while I do water changes, so he stays in there but I try to suction where he isn't. The only 'good' sign I was was him riding the bubbler once. I tested the water anyways another 30 mins later, and the Ammonia was at 0.2. So I did another water change, and used the appropriate dosage of prime and good bacteria (AZoo Plus Ultra Bioguard) as per their instructions for an emergency water change (50% per the instructions). Waited about 20 minutes for the water to circulate and settle while he's still frantically darting and pacing, and did another water test:
Amm - 0.1
Nitrite - 0.2
Nitrate - 5
SG - 1.002
Didn't add any extra deworming treatment despite the water change, im too afraid to overload the water right now. I don't think doing yet another water change today would be a good idea.. For context, it's currently 10:15pm for me, and I usually do water changes at 7pm.
He calmed down a bit now but the ammonia and nitrite levels are making me worry. What should I do? should I do water changes twice daily now instead? Should I remove him when I do water changes? I could keep him in a container cup I used to move him into this tank
I did the daily water change earlier today after feeding (eating normally and all discarded food gets taken out), as per usual, and changed out his deco to give him something new to explore. Prime arrived this morning so I immediately used that to dechlorinate the water, and also dissolved marine salt into the new water to raise the SG of his tank to 1.001 for a start. I waited about 8 hours for the salt to dissolve and to ensure the water was dechlorinated fully. I also added in another round of deworming treatment after the water change.
About 45 minutes after the water change, he was still pacing, much more frantically than usual, and darting around again, he completely stopped darting since the day before. Before the water change, he was much calmer with his pacing, and chilled at the bottom a lot more. So, i chalked it up to the stress of the new deco and water change, I don't have another tank for him to sit in while I do water changes, so he stays in there but I try to suction where he isn't. The only 'good' sign I was was him riding the bubbler once. I tested the water anyways another 30 mins later, and the Ammonia was at 0.2. So I did another water change, and used the appropriate dosage of prime and good bacteria (AZoo Plus Ultra Bioguard) as per their instructions for an emergency water change (50% per the instructions). Waited about 20 minutes for the water to circulate and settle while he's still frantically darting and pacing, and did another water test:
Amm - 0.1
Nitrite - 0.2
Nitrate - 5
SG - 1.002
Didn't add any extra deworming treatment despite the water change, im too afraid to overload the water right now. I don't think doing yet another water change today would be a good idea.. For context, it's currently 10:15pm for me, and I usually do water changes at 7pm.
He calmed down a bit now but the ammonia and nitrite levels are making me worry. What should I do? should I do water changes twice daily now instead? Should I remove him when I do water changes? I could keep him in a container cup I used to move him into this tank
I know jack S^*t about puffers but i would not remove from tank for a WC
But i'm sure the puffer people will perk up and say something
But i'm sure the puffer people will perk up and say something
I wouldn’t worry about deworming until cycling is done. One problem at a time.
I also wouldn’t raise salt until the puffer has been established for a bit. Naturally juveniles stay in fw until maturing a bit and moving to saltier waters.
Definitely don’t remove during a w/c. All it does is make a stressful experience even more stressful.
You can consider more frequent, smaller water changes to try to reduce stress and make swings less drastic.
I also wouldn’t raise salt until the puffer has been established for a bit. Naturally juveniles stay in fw until maturing a bit and moving to saltier waters.
Definitely don’t remove during a w/c. All it does is make a stressful experience even more stressful.
You can consider more frequent, smaller water changes to try to reduce stress and make swings less drastic.
Not sure if this is ich or not! He's still in his quarantine tank so if it is, I can treat him in there.
I've been getting mixed info about this from googling, ive seen pictures of f8s with white spots like its normal and puffs with ich too!
Most of the spots are on his body as seen in the picture, but there's also two white spots on his top fin, and one almost microscopic spot on his tail fin.
he's behaving well, eating normally, playing with the bubbles, exploring his tank, loving his new caves when i switch them out, water is back to normal (amm 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 2) less glass surfing too. I just switched out his sponge filter for a better one, but i did put the sponge from the old filter into the new one and added a bit of good bac solution too.
some routines if that helps: daily water changes after feeding so any tiny leftovers get removed (30% change now there's a new filter instead of 50%), the past few days ate bloodworms, 1/3 of a freeze dried shrimp soaked in seachem garlic guard, and live pest snails from LFS and today is his no food day of the week.
so would love some proper opinions on this if it's ich
I've been getting mixed info about this from googling, ive seen pictures of f8s with white spots like its normal and puffs with ich too!
Most of the spots are on his body as seen in the picture, but there's also two white spots on his top fin, and one almost microscopic spot on his tail fin.
he's behaving well, eating normally, playing with the bubbles, exploring his tank, loving his new caves when i switch them out, water is back to normal (amm 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 2) less glass surfing too. I just switched out his sponge filter for a better one, but i did put the sponge from the old filter into the new one and added a bit of good bac solution too.
some routines if that helps: daily water changes after feeding so any tiny leftovers get removed (30% change now there's a new filter instead of 50%), the past few days ate bloodworms, 1/3 of a freeze dried shrimp soaked in seachem garlic guard, and live pest snails from LFS and today is his no food day of the week.
so would love some proper opinions on this if it's ich
Overall his body condition looks good. It’s hard to make out the white spots, but I think I can see some.
The nice thing about fw ich is it’s quite easy to treat:
www.monsterfishkeepers.com
Given that this is a naturally salt tolerant fish, it should have no problems with treatment.
The nice thing about fw ich is it’s quite easy to treat:
One proven way to treat ich/ick
I am writing this because it is something that comes up so often. Ich is a protozoal infection that afflicts fish and can rapidly kill them, most often by damaging gill tissue. The organism goes through a life cycle of; a small white spot feeding on your fish, which drops off to the floor of...
www.monsterfishkeepers.com
