Help with my South American Puffers! Not looking good

[cass9887]

I think I may have overmedicated my two south american puffers. Here is what I did. I started too see that they were getting fin rot so I added a pack and half of Maracyn for fin rot and other stuff. I didnt even put the full dose for the size of tank I have. Well I wasnt thinking straight and completely unpugged the filter all together. Still have a bubble stone in the tank. I came back from class hours later and the whole tank was clouded and my fish were at the bottom looking close to dying. I did a 30% water change and added some conditioner and stress coat and PH decrease also I put in a brand new filter. Its been 5 hrs and still then tank is cloudy BUT my fish are looking a little better. Thinking I might do another water change but im scared to over do it and cause my fish to go into shock. What am I doing wrong ? Any advice would be greatly appreciated . Thank you

 

[homebunnyj]

What you did wrong:

• monkeying with the pH (swings make fish sick)
• decreasing aeration when medicating instead of increasing it (but you know already)
• putting in new filter media (you removed the beneficial bacteria that were colonized on the old one... now you will have elevated ammonia levels in addition to the fish's other problems)

Next time you feel the need to medicate, be sure not to unplug your filter... don't know why you did that anyway. Simply remove the carbon from your filter media chamber before adding the med.

Best treatment for fin rot is pristine water conditions. Ammonia and nitrite should be at zero, and nitrate should be under twenty. You should always have tests for those three things around.

Most fish can adjust to most pH's. Using ph up and ph down cause deadly swings. If you've been trying to keep a certain ph by using those, that's one reason your fish are sick.

When you change water, be sure to match the temp. All you need to add is conditioner.

Test for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate, and post up the results in numbers. Then tell us a bit about the history of your tank and your maintenance routine, and we'll help you to understand some factors leading to your fish's illness and how to avoid that in the future.

Oh, yeah... biggest mistake is listening to fish store employees. lol

 

[MissFishy]

The main cause of fin rot is poor water conditions. As homebunny said above, you should never mess around with your PH. Puffers also often have trouble with fin rot since they often nip eachother if their tanks aren't set up properly and those "nibbles" get infected. Make sure to read up on what size tank your puffers should be in and whether they have enough hiding places. They also need hard foods to wear their "beaks" down, such as snails.

My suggestions, read up on cycling a tank, since you removed the filter media, you'll need a refresher, there's a link in the stickies or below on cycling. Next, do TONS of water changes, everyday using ONLY water conditioner, no more messing around with the PH or medications. Good luck and welcome to the forum!