Two Sick Puffers

dean1969

dean1969

New Member
Both of my puffer fish seem to be dying. I've had them since December and haven't had any problems at all. This happened the day after I did a water change. I did the water change like I always do using RO water. Salinity is 1.018 and Nitrates/Nitrites/Ammonia are all in check. PH was only slightly low, but buffer corrected that. Also checked for voltage leaks from the power heads and all is well. A yellow tang in the same tank is doing fine. What's weird is both fish had the exact same symptoms and the exact same time. They are very lethargic and are both puffed up floating on top of the water and just barely breathing. I'm wondering if it is the clam I fed them yesterday. It was a brand new package of clam from my LFS. This is the strangest thing I've ever seen. Any ideas?
BTW: I am running an aerator and a UV sterilizer as well.
Here's Pics
Update: I returned to my tank after typing this post to find that both of them had died. They must have died within 4 or 5 minutes of each other.
Update: Yellow Tang is dead.
 
sk8shorty01

sk8shorty01

Active Member
Is there any reason why you are keeping your salinity so low? Maybe that contributed to the problem. It could be that the clams were bad and weakened them and then the lower salinity made a bad problem worse.
 
dean1969

dean1969

New Member
No particular reason. That's where I've always had it. I'm going to do a 100% water change today and start with a clean slate. Maybe I'll set the new salinity level to 1.020.
 
bulldog123

bulldog123

Member
I have only been doing this for a few months but I have never heard of someone doing that. Even when there are high nitrate of what ever the problem is no one does more than 50%. Dont do it until someone with more experience helps you out.
 
sk8shorty01

sk8shorty01

Active Member
If I were you I would go up to about 1.025 for salinity. Most fish and inverts will fair far better at those levels. I think I would go with maybe a 20% change each week (or every other) until you can raise the salinity to 1.025, I would go up maybe .002 at each change if you can. Just rough guess what salinity you need to add each time. Think about it and run some quick calculations and it shouldn't be to hard to get pretty close to that.
 
teresaq

teresaq

Active Member
sounds more like something toxic in your water. Either in your water change, sprayed in the air, something on your hands??
T
 
R

rcreations

Guest
Originally Posted by TeresaQ
http:///forum/post/3042442
sounds more like something toxic in your water. Either in your water change, sprayed in the air, something on your hands??
T
I agree. Sounds like something contaminated your water for all 3 fish to die like this.
 
sk8shorty01

sk8shorty01

Active Member
I think only the two puffers died. It might be a bad water change too, as I believe puffers (do to the lack of scaling) have a harder time with water quality changes. This could be the culperate. They also have a hard time with treatments and chemicals so a contaminate might also be a thought.
 
dean1969

dean1969

New Member
Originally Posted by sk8shorty01
http:///forum/post/3042449
I think only the two puffers died. It might be a bad water change too, as I believe puffers (do to the lack of scaling) have a harder time with water quality changes. This could be the culperate. They also have a hard time with treatments and chemicals so a contaminate might also be a thought.
All I had in the tank was two puffers and the tang. All three are now dead. My hunch is that there's a contaminate in the water. Seeing how there's no wildlife to be concerned with I'm going to dump all of the water and refill. Hopefully my liverock is ok.
 
dean1969

dean1969

New Member
Originally Posted by sk8shorty01
http:///forum/post/3042440
If I were you I would go up to about 1.025 for salinity. Most fish and inverts will fair far better at those levels. I think I would go with maybe a 20% change each week (or every other) until you can raise the salinity to 1.025, I would go up maybe .002 at each change if you can. Just rough guess what salinity you need to add each time. Think about it and run some quick calculations and it shouldn't be to hard to get pretty close to that.
Will do 1.025. Thanks.
 
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