What is happening to my puffers?

[moose1960]

Yesterday when I came home I noticed one of my puffers had died. I was away for the week and had my son feeding them , from premade packages so it wasnt overfeeding. My test results seemed normal except for the high GH, and lowing of the PH.
I added yesterday 4 scats, 3 mono sebeas, and 3 mono argents before I realized he had died. Today I noticed The other dwarf puffer has darkening of the belly which is usually a creamy white.
Any one have any ideas.

After a water change my results were

KH stays steady at 7 or 8 drops = 70-80 mg/L,
GH 960 mg/L which is steadly rising
Ph is 7.6 slowly going down (was at 8 last weekend)
ammo=0
Nitites=<.03
Nitrates= 10~20

[goldfish freak]

What is the size of the tank and what is the size of your fish? How often do you check your KH? pH is directly related to KH. All the fish you mention are messy eaters and the monos and scats produce alot of waste. If the bioload in you tank is very high and you do not detect any ammonia or nitrite in your water then the amount of nitrification taking place will also be high. Along with with the left over food and waste present will tend to lower your pH if your KH is not quite high. Unfourtantely puffers are known to die mysteriously. If your water tests fine on a regular basis then this may be the cause of your puffer's death. I am sorry to hear it :(.

[Dangerdoll]

I know that Dwarf puffers are a freshwater puffer.... perhaps the death and discoloring is because they can't tolerate brackish so well. I have heard that they can be susceptible to bacterial infections though..... how long have they been in this type of set-up?

[goldfish freak]

True about he dwarf puffers. Is this the same tank that you mentioned in your other post. I just assumed you were talking about another tank here, since you mentioned dwarf puffers.

[moose1960]

Tank is a 55 gal.
Unfortunatly these puffers were given to me buy a friend who was told they were figure eights. I then from posting pics was told they were green spotted puffers, Then after going down to the store where he got them, 3 hours away. The store had them listed as dwarf puffers, but another store in the area said no they are actually green spoted puffers.
This is the same tank as the other post I asked about high GH.

They have been inthe tank for a little over 3 weeks. They are only aprox 1 inch nose to tail.
Unfortunately I have been away during the last 2 weeks but home on weekends due to work. Every weekend I do at least 20% water change. And they were in the tank with 3 columbian sharks, sailfins and a molly. The new additions were only yesterday.

My QT tank has snails and guppie feeders in it with no salt, should I move him there or is he maybe beeing stressed from the new additions. being that I havent been around to see them daily, I am at a loss.

[goldfish freak]

My guess is that your dwarf puffer is simply stressed by the addition of the new fish. These puffers will display gray around their underside when stressed. My puffer did this when I added my Mono Sebaes to my tank and still displays this for short periods nearly everyday. I added my monos six weeks ago. I think that this is normal and nothing to worry about (I hope)as long he is acting normally and the dark color does not stay for long.

[moose1960]

Thanks Goldfish Freak.
I hope that is what it is. The one that died didnt have any grey post mortem. I am not going away again for a while so I can keep an eye on this one.

[MonoSebaelover]

You will definetly have to watch water quality now. That is a lot of fish for a 55 gallon. Keep in mind that Monos and Scats have to be in saltwater when adult. You will be looking at least a 125G tank when these fish are full grown if not larger.

[moose1960]

Water quality is not too much of a problem with me, at least once a week if not more water changes and I am always spending tooooo much time with the fishies says my wife. :D
Larger tank comes probably this summer, as we will hopefully be moving to a new posting. As long as I dont have to go away for any extended periods things should be good. I also have another 30 gal sitting in basement which i plan to start up with tank water from the 55 if need be.

I am planning on getting a protein skimmer for the 55 cause eventually I will go marine. I read somewere that you can use it in brakish water? RTR, what are your thoughts on this ?
Also I have read to raise PH use baking soda? How much would be used ?

[RTR]

Foam fractionators (aka protein skimmers) will work in brackish, but I don't remember where they start operation.

[Ananda]

They'll work in freshwater if the water has enough gunk in it and IF you can get sufficiently small bubbles (which is difficult). Foam fractionators were initially used in sewage treatment facilities.

Protein skimmers should start working around 1.006 if you have a heavy fish load. You may get skimmate that looks more like green tea than coffee sludge, however.

I made a co-current skimmer out of soda bottles as a test-of-concept. It was pretty inefficient. In a molly growout tank with the sg at 1.008, I was getting green tea skimmate. The stuff did stink, so it was pulling something out.

(For details, go to http://wetwebfotos.com/talk and search for "soda bottle skimmer". Plans are on my user page over there.)

[moose1960]

Unfortunatly my other Puffer died yesterday :confused: All he was doing was tumbling around and not eating. I hate when I have to go away for extended periods and can't watch them day to day. I have been doing 20% a day water changes sinse adding my new additions, and everyone else seems to be doing alright.

Ananda, you say it was pretty ineffecient but it still worked? I read the threads and saw the plans, are you still using it?

[goldfish freak]

Very sorry to hear that. :(

[Ananda]

> are you still using it?
Nope -- tried it on the brackish tank, then moved it to the 10g nano for a while. Eventually I took it out (long story why) and never did put it back in. Still have most of it. The silicone didn't work long-term on holding the collection cup together, so I'd have to redo that.

I'm upgrading the 10g nano tank to a 29g + 10g fuge + 5g mantis tank, so I'm looking for a real skimmer....