Puffer Exploded

[ssandalson]

New to this forum. I had a porcupine puffer who died recently and was wondering if anyone else has ever had this problem.
I have a 75 gl tank established in February. Several of my fish had ich so I decided to dip them all in a chemical solution (cannot remember the name) to rid the ick. I carefully took puffer out of my tank and put him in the treated bucket. Chemical was mixed with salt water from the tank. Puffer must have gotten frightened and he blew up. When this happened a clear sac appeared under his belly. I noticed both water and air in the sac so I held him under till he relaxed and puffed down. Noticed some excess skin under his belly at this point. I put him back in the regular tank and he did not look well. He died 12 hours later. Seems he blew out his underbelly when he puffed up.
Any ideas why this happened? He was the sweetest fish, more like a pet than the others I have.
75 gal tank
protein skimmer
carbon filtration system
live rock
live sand
2 blue damsels
yellow tank
maroon clown
lobster
star fish
He unfortunately has already passed but curious none the less. I want to get another one ASAP!
Thanks
Tammy

 

[beth]

You can not remove a pufferfish from water, else this can happen. Do you still have ich? Dips don't cure ich. If you still need help with ich, then stick to this forum. But, for more info on puffers and their care, head on over to the Aggressive Forum.
In fact, I'll copy your thread over there.
Welcome to SWF.com!

 

[ssandalson]

Beth,
Thanks for the welcome. I now have some where to get the advice I needed. Unfortunately I found you guys a little to late for my puffer!
In regards to the ICK problem, it is gone. I dipped all my fish 3 days in a row, everyone has survived (except puffer) and the parasite is gone! I did not want to treat the entire tank due to my star fish, lobster and live rock. Is there a better way to treat ICK vs dipping them in the solution (one capful to one gallon of tank water for 15 minutes)?
Terry, thanks for the response but I feel like I have been repremanded, give a newcomer a little slack.
Thanks again for the help everyone!

 

[beth]

When did you get the ich and how long has it been since you had ich?
As for reprimand, we hear a lot of sad stories involving or fin friends with hobbyists who just didn't know better. Sometimes its hard for the mods too....like working in the fish trauma unit....

 

[ssandalson]

I got the ick about 5 weeks ago. I lost a scarlet hawkfish and then really started looking around the tank. I noticed the white stuff on my purple tang. I went to my local fish store and they told me about the chemical dip treatment. I started treating my purple tang and his went away. Then I noticed that some of the other fish were not looking 100%. I then lost a black and white striped damsel. This was about 2 weeks in. I then decided to dip everyone so they would not continue to spread it. I started my dips at about the 2 1/2 week mark. With the exception of the puffer everyone else came out ok. The ick has now been gone for almost 2 weeks. Have not seen any sign of it since. Everyone else in the tank is doing great. Just added a puffy dwarf lion and a regal tang, both are doing well.
Thanks for the advise on feeding as well. I am hopefully going to pick up another puffer this week and will pick up some additional kinds of food.
Thanks for the info, this website is wonderful, especially for someone new to the salt water field.

 

[ssandalson]

Oops sorry, the feeding advise was from the aggressive setups message board.

 

[ssandalson]

OK, tell me about this quarantine tank. What size is suitable? How do I set this up? How long does one usually leave a new fish in this before adding to display tank?
It is most unfortunate that my local fish store did not tell me about this when I first went about setting up this tank. The lady I deal with there is very confident and very helpful.
Any and all help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[flamehawk]

LFS don't always give the best advice. This forum is only around to give advice based on experience with the hope you can avoid mistakes made by us and others.
DO you haver a purple and Yellow tang together in a 75?? It soundes like you really have an issue with overcrowding....way overstocked. Please list all your fish to be sure. If LFS had best interest in mind, they would not have sold you all those fish for your size tank. Y.you should ask them to take half of your fish load back for store credit. After doing so, do a major water change(30% or so) and observe carefully to see if any outbraks occur. Prevention is the best medicine.
Always Q your fish. A 10-20g Q tank will suffice. I usually keep a sponge filter circulating in my main tank to be used when setting up a Q tank. No substrate, no rock except maybe a small piece to act as comforting shelter. I make a habit of keeping the salinity in the 1.009 range for the 3-4 weeks of Q'ing. You'll need a refractometer for salinity accuracy. Good luck. Let us know how it goes.

 

[ssandalson]

OK - we do about a 30% water change per month. This month we did more like 50% because of the ICK prior.
75 gallon tank has the following fish- sizes are estimates
Blue Lobster
Star fish
2 blue damsels
1 maroon clown
1 yellow tang
1 purple tang - much smaller than Yellow Tang - 1/2 the size
1 regal tang - smaller than purple tang
1 fuzzy dwarf lion
As for the salinity in the QT, isnt 1.009 a bit low. Will this not be a problem for a fish going into a display tank with a salinity of 1.022? Im not sure how this whole thing works.

 

[ssandalson]

All points well taken! I will talk to my LFS regarding the amount of fish and possible returns!
What is the general guideline for the amount of fish that one should have in a 75g tank? I have heard that 2 inches of fish per 10 gals is normal. Would love some guidance here.
How can I find out what the adult size of a particular fish will be so I can do my estimating properly? Are there any web locations that have this kind of information? I have noticed on some of the descriptions for the fish under U-Build It, they give some information but not everything.
As for cleaners, what do you recommend I put in my tank (snails, shrimp, etc) to help keep the bottom, glass and live rock clean?
Back to my ick chemical dips. I used Kent Marine Expert Series
Rx-P parasite treatment when I did the dips. It contains no copper but I was afraid to treat my entire tank due to the starfish and live rock. On the bottle it says you can dip fish as well. This is what I did - 1 capful of solution to 1 gal of saltwater from the tank. Fish went in for no longer than 15 minutes then back into the tank. My LFS was the one who suggested this to me, I am starting to question their knowledge. Unfortunately I found this site after the fact or I guess I would have know better. Is it best to say I should not use this treatment process again? Would it be better in the future to set up the QT and treat the fish in this enviroment instead, treating the QT tank as well as the fish involved? What about the ick spreading to the other fish, how do you decide when and how to treat everyone! Unfortunately I lost puff daddy (dont laugh the kids named him) due to this process but thankfully I have not lost any others.
All help here has been greatly appreciated, Thanks.