The Little Dwarf Puffer That Could.

[Pat93]

What is the water volume of the tank?5g and 10g

How long has the tank been running? Since March

Does it have a filter?yes

Does it have a heater?yes

What is the water temperature?79

What is the entire stocking of this tank? (Please list all fish and inverts.)1 dwarf in the 5

4 dwarfs in the 10


Maintenance

How often do you change the water? Weekly sometimes bI if needed but hasn’t been yet

How much of the water do you change?1/4 on the 5. 1/3 to 1/2 on the 10

What do you use to treat your water?prime

Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water?

Vaccum sand


*Parameters - Very Important

Did you cycle your tank before adding fish? Yes

What do you use to test the water?master api

What are your parameters? We need to know the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.


Ammonia:0

Nitrite:0

Nitrate:5-10

pH:8.2


Feeding

How often do you feed your fish?fasting for 3 days during quarantine after light feeding on first day of having them.


How much do you feed your fish? A few snails and live black worms

What brand of food do you feed your fish? Homegrown

Do you feed frozen or freeze-dried foods?bloodworms in the future but not yet


Illness & Symptoms

How long have you had this fish?2 days

How long ago did you first notice these symptoms?today

In a few words, can you explain the symptoms?

Fully puffed, them spun like a torpedo until I clumsily aspirated him the only way I knew how without a needle, turned real dark but he’s lightening up now

Have you started any treatment for the illness?

In a way that could be what caused this


Was your fish physically ill or injured upon purchase? Seemingly so but I planned to medicate them anyway so I gave the little bugger a shot

How has its behavior and appearance changed, if at all?

He seemed kind of loner ish when I got him whereas the other 4 puffs swim in a group(even my female from another tank)

A few hours after I treated he displayed the symptoms above


Explain your emergency situation in detail. (Please give a clear explanation of what is going on, include details from the beginning of the illness leading up to now)


This little guy has been through a lot today,

Let me bring you up to speed

Went to the local fishstore the other day to pick up a group of dwarf puffers

I just wanted 4 but they had 5 so I got them all even though one looked a little darker and smaller then them all (almost positive it is the puff above like 99%)

My plan was to put all the puffs in a ten gallon and treat (deworm) them and I did so. They are very young so aggression is not an issue at the moment. And I have plenty of spots to give anyone who doesn’t want to live in a community a home.


Using the quarantine regimine I dosed the tank and every one seemed great for four or five hours then the little guy above(pretty sure it’s a male) turned really dark and puffed he started spinning like a torpedo. unable to right himself, and stressed by tankmates, I removed him from the med tank and placed him into a 5 gallon I had on standby. Same water parameters


He was still spinning and so I took him out and held HI'm vertically upright between two fingers(with non toxic sterile rubber gloves on) and pressed what I hoped to be his swim bladder with my thumb while shaking my hand until I saw him spit some bubbles and I felt the bottom of his jaw with my thumb then I stopped applying pressure and put him back into the 5 gallon, he sat on the bottom for awhile but is up and around now seemingly doing better. (He even nibbled at some pond snail eggs)




Everyone else is handling the treatment well and I knew this little guy might give me trouble but I couldn’t just leave him there alone knowing I had the tank space and meds at home to maybe fix him.( I’ll admit I was partially interested because unfortunately in this hobby research only gets you so far and you can’t learn how to fix a sick fish unless you have a sick fish to treat)


My questions


Is there anything more that I can do for this guy?


I think the change in viscosity of the water from the meds may have been to much for him at the moment, perhaps he just needs a good clean tank with no competition for food and he will come around?


Since he reacted negatively does that confirm the little fella has some sort of a sickness?

Or does it just mean he needs some “fattening up” before I attempt a quarantine procedure?


I’m not opposed to the idea of just not treating him and letting him live alone for however long he remains alive, but something in the back of my mind keeps saying that there is something I can do

His slime coat seems thick and sand is sticking to him where he rolled around so maybe it’s ich? I can’t tell cause he is so small and the sand would disguise the ich spots
But then I could give him a few days and treat for ich

His mouth seems a little weird like maybe he got nipped or something by another puff In the pet store display in which case I could just treat him with some arythromycin?

He is hanging out near the top of the tank at the moment seemingly by choice, he has a bubblestone in to provide more aeration than just the filter.

Any thoughts ideas or general mood lightening comments are appreciated.

Meds on hand:

Arythromycin, ich- x, apI general cure

Small amount of paragaurd

ApI super ich cure

Tetra fungal,lifeguard,antI ich

 

[Jellibeen]

I hope he turns out okay! I don’t have much experience with puffers, but I do have a lot of experience with stress (mostly my own). It seems like a good idea to hold off on the quarantine meds for at least a few days. Give him clean water and good food, and see how he is doing. I’m sure the move was stressful for him so it may be best to give him some time to rest.

 

[Pat93]

I gotta closer look at him and it looks like someone may have been bullying him (minor tail damage and maybe some side nips) perhaps one of the other puffs is also a male and out competed him.
I’m tellin ya at about 1 o’clock today I thought I literally had a dead fish on my hands he did not look good, either the move out of the med tank or me squeezing the air out of him or both has made him do a complete 360 I agree with watching him and just giving him clean water and space and seeing how he pulls through is the best course of action for the next little bit here.
And I was concerned about 5 puffs in a ten gallon anyway even if they are young and it’s just for 7 days after that I can remove aggressors as needed if there are any, all 4 seem pretty happy with some minor chasing here and there as of now though, thanks for the response!

 

[eustoma01]

Five in a ten gallon seems like a lot to me... I would honestly lower that number down to three.

 

[Pat93]

Five in a ten gallon seems like a lot to me... I would honestly lower that number down to three.

That’s the plan but they are juveniles at the moment and receiving their meds all together before they are split up. Also you can pretty much put however many females you want together depending on the attitude individual fish you intend to add. In other words the gender ratio is more important then the actual number. But these guys are getting split up in less than a week and they are still in their weird schooling with each other phase because I rearrange the heavily planted tank every day.

 

[Jellibeen]

How’s the little guy doing? I hope he is okay!

 

[Pat93]

He’s still kicking around! (I believe it may be a her now though lol)
She Got a little color back
She seems to have an injured fin and mainly just swims in a circle but is not erratic and seems to be in control of or learning to control her swimming again.

I haven’t dosed anymore of the med trio (arythromycin, ich x or general cure) on her tank but I have been using paragaurd daily to disenfect any potential old wounds/ fight what I can without being to intrusive.

She’s is by no means recovered but isn’t on the chopping block anymore.

I have to assume this fish was just severely stressed from transport and keeping conditions until she got to me and had some bullies in her past tanks because she shows no signs of getting worse like a puff with internal parasites or a disease would.

She acts really different than my other puffs
But she does not appear to be in pain or swimming erratically so I have not considered euthanasia since she seems a little “special” and maybe just needs extra care which I am willing to provide.

Her name is acorn! (My gf named her because she fell in love with pea puffers once I got them and made me “give” her over lol) I still provide My doctor services though haha

 

[PowderBlue]

He’s still kicking around! (I believe it may be a her now though lol)
She Got a little color back
She seems to have an injured fin and mainly just swims in a circle but is not erratic and seems to be in control of or learning to control her swimming again.

I haven’t dosed anymore of the med trio (arythromycin, ich x or general cure) on her tank but I have been using paragaurd daily to disenfect any potential old wounds/ fight what I can without being to intrusive.

She’s is by no means recovered but isn’t on the chopping block anymore.

I have to assume this fish was just severely stressed from transport and keeping conditions until she got to me and had some bullies in her past tanks because she shows no signs of getting worse like a puff with internal parasites or a disease would.

She acts really different than my other puffs
But she does not appear to be in pain or swimming erratically so I have not considered euthanasia since she seems a little “special” and maybe just needs extra care which I am willing to provide.

Her name is acorn! (My gf named her because she fell in love with pea puffers once I got them and made me “give” her over lol) I still provide My doctor services though haha

I am new to dwarf puffers, how do you tell male from female?

 

[Pat93]

Males are big and yellow with no polka dots, females are smaller and lighter and develop black polka dots as they age

 

[eustoma01]

Males are big and yellow with no polka dots, females are smaller and lighter and develop black polka dots as they age

I think you have it the other way around... females tend to be bigger, or at least rounder in shape. Males have a stripe going down their belly along with small lines behind their gills. As with most animals, the males tend to be brighter in color with darker spots while females have a somewhat more muted/faded coloration to them.

 

[Pat93]

All of my males are big and dark and all of my females are smaller and lighter with less yellow and black spots, I understand what the internet says but I’m just saying what I observe looking at the 4 puffers I have, all of which are housed separately now. I’ve seen big females and I’ve seen big males so size is relative and I probably shouldn’t have even used it to describe them as I’ve onky handled 4 and it’s hard to get a good reading of general size from that small a group, the real give away is the black polka dots IMO because the male “eye wrinkles” are either so small I can’t see them or take even longer to develop
The amount of yellow you see in the fish is also dependent on whether you have incandescent or LED lighting.I agree the stripe on the belly would also be a good way to tell a male

 

[PowderBlue]

I have two puffers now and both have a stripe on their belly, so males they seem to be. Thanks for the info.