Blimpie died today from what I can only imagine as a) an ich infection in the gills (his breathing was VERY aggrivated all morning) or b) age or c) varying temperatures in combination with the water change I did two days ago.
I think if it were ich I would've noticed signs on his skin before a gill infection. The only signs I got were that since the water change his markings have been dark indicating he's been stressed, and until this morning that's all I saw before he showed signs of aggrivated breathing.
I did introduce a supplemental filter in my 5 gallon during the water change and I'm just not sure I rinsed it thoroughly enough. It's a Fluval though so I can't imagine it would've been heavily contaminated with crap...-.-
I think I'm officially done with this 5 gallon. The params chemically are very stable but temp is just too hard to keep up with, its updownupdown. I'm attributing his death to a number of factors. DP's are supposed to live 1-2yrs in captivity. At least I know he lived much longer than he would've at Petsmart. I know I've mentioned this before but I'm glad to say that I was the last person to purchase a DP out of my local Petsmart. He was the very last alive out of a shipment of 30 (the rest died over a period of a week, which as I understand it from one of their associates is NORMAL) and about 2 weeks after I made the purchase they no longer carried them here. Wonder why. Perhaps they had finally realized DP's can't survive on vacation feeder stones.
One time, my aquarium's temperature got up to almost 32 degrees! (90 degrees fahrenheit, for those of you who are Americans) I took off the lid and light fixture and floated an ice pack in my fish tank. It melted and now the temperature has been stable at around 75 degrees fahrenheit for quite a while. I cut out some plastic canvas to fit the top of my aquarium. The water evaporates very slowly and my temperature is IDEAL. I thought my java moss and fish would die, but they are perfectly happy. I feel really sorry for your fish Blimpie.
It doesn't sound like you knew he was actually dying, but I just can't stand this sort of thing so I bought some Finquel which is approved for humane fish euthanasia and I'll use it when I know a fish is dying.
Aweeee poor blimpie! But he did have a much better life than he would have in the pet store so i'm very happy you were able to give him a longer happier life. Blimpie will be missed. (awee i absolutely loved that name btw)
Guys I'm really embarassed to write this...and I feel like a fool for crying wolf..
At the time of the first post blimpie was face down in the base of mondo grass, not breathing, and unresponsive to -ANYTHING- as I went to bed.
For the past two days he seems to be making a slow recovery and fighting what I first assumed to be ich. I have yet to find concrete evidence...tho. I would have posted sooner but when I came in the next morning when I was expecting to remove him from the tank, he was laying on the tank floor moving nothing but his eyes and barely breathing..I still had little faith he'd make it but since that point have been vigorously treating for ich, and it seems to be helping. He's still very lethargic and has trouble breathing. I wasn't too eager to recant my first post, more eager to save Blimpie. Believe me I wasn't looking for false sympathy. :(
I've treated with salt as per the 1tbsp per 5 gallon rule, I've raised the temp over 80 (it varies way too freaking much, but that's about the best I can do for the moment), and also treated with pimafix, and have given him 2 - 50% water changes, one per day. I have never seen a fish that was so close to death try so hard to fight it off.
a1k8t3, DP's are purely freshwater. I made sure I knew this before buying the little guy. 95+% of other Puffers are brackish as you say. They're known to live 1-2 years in captivity.
The only thing I can attribute the ich coming from is either a snail from my gf's tank or possibly a dirty water canister. Though none of the other tanks in the house have shown signs of ich.
I'm still not sure he's going to recover but I'm doing the best I can. He hasn't eaten in at least 3 days. Any additional input would be great. I'm sorry for posting so early, I feel like a freaking moron, but am happy Blimpie seems to be fighting it. Thank god I didn't flush him like I was going to before I went to bed..
Lastly thanks so much for your sympathies even though they're unwarranted and undeserved at this point.
Blimpie has now gone approx 5 days without food. He spends the majority of his day not exerting any effort to stay afloat and merely rests against a plant, or on the aquarium floor. His markings are still almost always very dark indicating heavy stress.
I've continued daily 50% water changes, replaced lost salt with new aquarium salt as per 1tbsp per 5 gal, kept the tank above 80 degrees, and continued doses of pimafix after water changes.
He still isn't really showing any signs of improvement other than over the first day when I literally thought he was dead..I also have yet to see any concrete evidence supporting this is really ich, other than the aggrivated breathing supporting it may be a heavy gill infestation which should've been eliminated during its 72 hour life cycle by now..
I'm at a loss, I really can't honestly allow him to suffer much longer. :(
I'm wondering if he may try to eat something a bit easier to ingest rather than snails or bloodworms. Brandon, have you ever fed your puffers hatched brine shrimp or krill or that stuff you can hatch in a few hours with that little kit you can get almost anywhere?
TM . . . .are you changeing water with regular tap water? youmight be fighting some bactiera that is manifesting in his gills ..........just a thought ...might try mixing the change water with RO {walmart has it} be sure to check with some other freshwater people though i seem to remeber reading something about straight RO and fresh water tanks being trouble as well....I use 100% RO in my salt tank...{i think it was about the PH levels but im not sure}.........it sounds like your at the point were you'll try anything ............
lol I posted last week that my anemone hermit crab had died .....LOL he molted and i didn't know it and i gave his old exoskeliton a proper burial ....and the net morning he was running around looking for food ....i was all WTF???? - - so don't feel to bad about false alarms............it's nice to see all the people who are vested in our tanks with us................Snowboss
Boss, I've been picking at my brain trying to remember what RO refers to, is it Reverse osmosis? if so most drinking water (aquafina, dasani, etc) is filtered this way. Think its similar to evaporation or something. What exactly is distilled water? Is it just boiled before its packaged? I'll have to give it a try today, and I never add untreated (For chlorine/chloramines) water to my tanks, and furthermore try to avoid adding until about 24 hours after its been treated.
I actually witnessed blimpie eat shortly before I hit the sack yesterday. He finally took a bloodworm, but is still not really eating like normal and still shows signs of heavy stress and aggrivated breathing. Maybe I didn't catch the ich life cycle before it started again fully before I started treatment..
He seems like he may pull through. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
I know what you mean about the molting. Shortly after my first few weeks with shrimp my girlfriend turned into regular dead fish alarm. She'd go off just about every time she passed the tank and saw an exoskeleton laying around: "Baby there's a dead shrimp!!!" ..really irritating but she finally understands the difference now. lol I was fooled the first few times myself. It can be really confusing until you have the epiphany that its not the actual shrimp. heheh
Thanks for the tips boss. :)
yes RO is reverse osmosis - read the post "bottled water" on the forum front page....schigara really breaks it down nice...................glad to hear the lil fella has eaten something ..............Boss
distilled water is water that is heated up to the vaporization temp, which is somewhere around 98-102 i believe i dont remember the exact temp but then the vapors run through coils where they cool and condense, resulting in pure water. the same process is used in making spirits like vodka for example. On the front of the bottle it will say 5x distilled it is their way of bragging about how pure and clean their spirit/booz is when in reality any number of distillation over 3x is pretty much pointless.
