sad puffer fish update

thanatos0203 · Mar 12, 2009

so the puffer is actually dieing, he is just not flipping his fins hard enough and that sore i was talking about had gotten worse, i guess this is a hard lesson for me, puffers are cute but hard to take care of and i should really take more time to think about "hey thats a cool fish but is he manageable right now"

i will miss him since he was one of my favs but now i know if i want a puffer fish, then i can pick one out at the store and go visit him on a regular basis...

Kissyboots · Mar 12, 2009

thanatos0203 said:

Exactly. Well, now that you've seen a couple noobie mistakes, I would urge you to return some of the other fish. You probably don't want it to happen again. Sorry about your loss.

thanatos0203 · Mar 12, 2009

yeah its really sad, i mean idk what all im doing wrong any more, when i had the ammonia problem i did water changes everyday, then it got down to zro so i did it every other day, so idk what it is, do you think the fact that there might be too many fish might of killed him or the fact that its not brackish water? or what do you think?

jo3olous · Mar 12, 2009

could just be a combination of new tank, stressed fish, that fungal bacteria issue. Not all fish make it through a cycle, and I've never heard of puffers being hardy cycling fish ever anyway.

Some live, some die, you can't help it. What you can help is doing as little wrong as possible so if they do die, you can narrow it down to the fish just wasnt a 'good one' type of thing.

bmoraski · Mar 12, 2009

that stinks

thanatos0203 said:

sorry to here about your misfortune
it always stinks to lose a pet no matter how big or how small
you definatly bring up a good point about thinking a bit about what it takes to take care of ( what ever you get )
i wish i could give you some advice but im still a noob but learning quickly thanks to this forum
good luck man !
Bryan...................

thanatos0203 · Mar 12, 2009

well what do you guys think i should do, should i continue to water change every day, every other day? once a week, if i should return certain fish, which ones do you recommend. if you dont know, i have a dragon fish, golden dojo, 2 red swordtails, small bumble bee catfish, 1 pleco, a clown knife fish, three sun platias, a beta, like 3 water frogs, and two snails?

i dont want any more to die, but i mean i love the look of fish like the dojo loach, the knife and the dragon, the whole snake look, but i love the look of the pleco, which one do you think i should keep and base the tank around him. i mean i was thinking maybe just return some of them and go ahead and get a decent sized pleco, or return some and get like 2 more gold dojos or another dragon... idk, im already really attached to all of them, and dont want to see any of them go back, idk what to do, i really want this to work out...

thanatos0203 · Mar 12, 2009

bmoraski said:

thanks, im still a noob but this forum really does help out allot, ive learned so much, if i hadnt joined, all my fish might be dead

thanatos0203 · Mar 12, 2009

i mean, i really think my dojo loach is beautiful, could i just have a loach tank?

what do you guys think?

jo3olous · Mar 12, 2009

thanatos0203 said:

whoa where did all these come from! I thought you just had the clown knife, platys and pleco...
Everything in your tank except the pleco is food for your clown knife. In general if a fish can fit another fish in it's mouth, its food to them.
Are your frogs dwarf frogs? If so I recommend putting them in their own 5-10G tank seperate. They are not as hardy and have really bad eye sight, making them incredibly tough to feed. All your other fish will get all the food, because they are so blind and slow to get food themselves.

Don't buy anymore fish and try to work with what you have for now. That's my advice

jo3olous · Mar 12, 2009

a little hel pfor your clown knife:
Clown knifefish are sold as exotic fishes in pet stores, but they grow much too large for the average home aquarium. It is necessary to keep in mind that these fish will grow fast and very large even in captivity (about 50 cm), so should be kept in aquariums of at least 500 liters in order to reach their full growth potential. It is not advised to have tankmates small enough to be considered food.

These fish enjoy periods of retreat, so aquariums which have caves, plants, or other hiding places are preferred. They are jumpers, so the lid should be kept tightly closed (with weights - larger specimens may knock the lid out). Dim lighting may help lessen jumping issues. For the first few days, clown knifefish are shy and prone to hiding. As they grow larger they tend to be quite the opposite.

These fish have their own personalities, attaching themselves to their handlers to the point of being "hand-held" when moving or doing some maintenance.

[edit] Feeding
Clown knifefish are hearty eaters, one of the reasons people like them as pets. They are predatory fish and will take live foods such as feeder fish, ghost shrimp and blackworms. With time they can be adapted to foods such as beefheart and will sometimes learn to accept commercial food pellets. They are mostly nocturnal, thus prefer feeding when the lights are off

thanatos0203 · Mar 12, 2009

well i feed them blood worms and they eat alot

thanatos0203 · Mar 12, 2009

jo3olous said:

a little hel pfor your clown knife:
Clown knifefish are sold as exotic fishes in pet stores, but they grow much too large for the average home aquarium. It is necessary to keep in mind that these fish will grow fast and very large even in captivity (about 50 cm), so should be kept in aquariums of at least 500 liters in order to reach their full growth potential. It is not advised to have tankmates small enough to be considered food.

These fish enjoy periods of retreat, so aquariums which have caves, plants, or other hiding places are preferred. They are jumpers, so the lid should be kept tightly closed (with weights - larger specimens may knock the lid out). Dim lighting may help lessen jumping issues. For the first few days, clown knifefish are shy and prone to hiding. As they grow larger they tend to be quite the opposite.

These fish have their own personalities, attaching themselves to their handlers to the point of being "hand-held" when moving or doing some maintenance.

[edit] Feeding
Clown knifefish are hearty eaters, one of the reasons people like them as pets. They are predatory fish and will take live foods such as feeder fish, ghost shrimp and blackworms. With time they can be adapted to foods such as beefheart and will sometimes learn to accept commercial food pellets. They are mostly nocturnal, thus prefer feeding when the lights are off

yeah i didnt really mention there are guppies in there for food for him, he isnt to big, but i talked to my teacher and he agreed if he gets too big he will take him, he also works at an aquarium so, i dont mind donating him

jo3olous · Mar 12, 2009

I think your best bet is to stop purchasing/returning fish at this point and just work with what you have. Let your tank cycle properly, and let nature take its course with your fish.

If logic prevails, your clown will take care of all the fish except maybe the pleco, including the frogs. Then you can work from there. But now that you are throwing all these other fish into the mix (I thought you only had 2 platies pleco and clown knife) it's getting way too hard and confusing to assist

thanatos0203 · Mar 12, 2009

yeah, well the significant other (lol) likes "pretty fish" and likes to come home from work trying to pretty up my tank

thanatos0203 · Mar 12, 2009

about how long do you think the tank will take to cycle

jo3olous · Mar 12, 2009

thanatos0203 said:

even longer if you keep adding fish. You shouldn't use your girlfriend as an excuse to your tank getting messed up. You wouldn't let your girlfriend drive drunk or pay 100.00 for a glass of water right? both things are stupid and extreme, but you basically saying I can't educate my gf and stop her from making bad, excessive and unnecessary purchases is stupid also. You owe it to her wallet and her brain to educate her just like how you're learning via MFT, otherwise everything your learning is futile. What's the point in learning how to keep fish if your going to do it improperly because the GF has an impulse to buy buy buy.

My GF has nothing to do with my tanks but I still explain to her why theyre understocked and what can/cannot be bought and/or taken care of whenever she fusses about giving my tank "more life".

thanatos0203 · Mar 12, 2009

lol alright, yeah ill tell her no more fish

jo3olous · Mar 12, 2009

thanatos0203 said:

I'm not trying to offend you in any way, just saying you shouldn't let her blow up your time and effort, and if she's going to do it, at least she will know the negative impact it's having.

My last GF argued with me too much and illogically went about a lot of things after explaining things thoroughly to her.... DUMPED!

thanatos0203 · Mar 12, 2009

haha yeah, i mean i dont think she realized the importance of no more fish, but i cant blame her, she was just as excited as i was when i got it started, i was just the one working on it

jo3olous · Mar 12, 2009

thanatos0203 said:

If I didn't commit more money to ball gear, bowling gear, and college loans I wouldve done the same thing x9999. Good thing I made a budget kept me from buying 50 fish and ending up with 6 tanks

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