I recently bought a figure 8 puffer and the first two days he was acting great and eating fine then on day three and four of having him he started acting very sluggish hardly moving at all. When I first got him I put him in fresh water because that’s what he was in at the fish store with plans of slowly changing his water to brackish and on day five I increased his water salinity to 1.004 and he acted more energetic at first but now is back sitting on the bottom not really moving at all except his fins. If someone could help me out that would be great.
Puffer not acting right
- Thread starter Hunterpearson
- Start date
Did you jump from fresh to 1.004 right away?
if you did then maybe you shocked his system a bit as they normally recommend raising levels by about 0.002 each week till you reach desired level, in this case between around 1.005 - 1.008...
Not to mention, jumping too quickly in salinity can kill off the good bacteria in your filters which may also be contributing to the problem?
Next up, what size is the puffer and have you tested water parameters??? Coz normally very young F8’s start off in fresh as they slowly move into brackish conditions...
As for parameters, being that they are scaleless fish they can be quite sensitive to water quality, which again means if by chance you killed off the good bacteria in your filter, maybe they are experiencing problems due to that?
i could keep going on, but i would check parameters first to make sure nothings off...
if you did then maybe you shocked his system a bit as they normally recommend raising levels by about 0.002 each week till you reach desired level, in this case between around 1.005 - 1.008...
Not to mention, jumping too quickly in salinity can kill off the good bacteria in your filters which may also be contributing to the problem?
Next up, what size is the puffer and have you tested water parameters??? Coz normally very young F8’s start off in fresh as they slowly move into brackish conditions...
As for parameters, being that they are scaleless fish they can be quite sensitive to water quality, which again means if by chance you killed off the good bacteria in your filter, maybe they are experiencing problems due to that?
i could keep going on, but i would check parameters first to make sure nothings off...
I tested the parameters all of them are good except the ammonia went from 0 to .10 I’m guessing that’s from the salinity increase. Any advice on what to do for that?
