sick puffer???

[TRe]

ok you guys may remember my porcupine puffer he's my favorite fish and today i noticed he wasnt acting normal... usually as soon as i put food in the tank he gobbles all of it up most times leaving none for any of the other fish but today i noticed sum un eaten mysis floating around and when i looked closer one of his eyes are all foggy almost like as if he has cateracs (like on an old dog) and it kinda looks like that eye is swollen.... when i got him back in january the lfs told me he was about 3 years old ... is he just getting old?? how long do they usually live?? what can i do about it?? any suggestions would be appreciated

 

[KahluaZzZ]

cloudy eyes are cataract-like and stress indued. Your puffer is still young..i read some have for more than 10 years

 

[wayne]

Sounds like a bacterial problem. What's the filtration like on that system, is the trigger hassling him.
Hows your skimmer, but I would start with a BIG water change.

Oh, and he should be good for at least 10 or 15 years

 

[TRe]

ill do a wtaer changei guess... the skimmer is fine and if anything hes the one to mess with the trigger well he doesnt mess with any of the other fish but he is the boss in that tank but like i said i do a water change and let yall know how it goes
btw how much water should i change?

 

[1979camaro]

i would do 50%

 

[TRe]

50% on a 125 gallon??? are you serious?? its only been setup since mid june u sure..... the nitrates arnt bad and neither is anything else i usually do 10%

 

[aresgod]

yea 50% is a good number to do, if your having problems and aren't able to figure out what they are stemming from, a large water change is always a good idea

 

[TRe]

well its only the puffer thats been acting strange and 60 gallons is a whole lotta water to change without being positive that thats the problem i think ill start with a 20% water change and see how that works and take it from there... but anyone else with experiance with this type of puffer let me know if there are any other suggestions

 

[1979camaro]

you say your nitrates aren't "bad"...what are they?

what kind of skimmer are you running? how much is it pulling out a day?

 

[aresgod]

lol...do we even want to bother making suggestions here?

 

[TRe]

ok the nitrates are high now that i check (a lil over 40 ) so i will change as much water as possible and give u an update in a day or 2

 

[1979camaro]

sounds like a plan...try to get those nitrates down under 5

 

[aresgod]

have you checked the rest of your parameters? since nitrates weren't "fine" I would check those too just to be safe.

 

[TRe]

yeah amonia just a tad high , nitrites fine, ph perfect, salinity perfect

 

[wayne]

Any ammonia greater than zero is not fine., so it sounds like poor water quality is your proble. I would do that 50% water change - 20 percent is leaving 80% of your problem behind

 

[1979camaro]

yes...it sounds like you really need to do more frequent/larger water changes or step up your skimming...probably both

 

[TRe]

yea i will