My beloved puffer is acting very sick and lethargic since yesterday. His usually vibrant coloring is paler than usual and he is not showing interest in doing anything. He sits at the bottom of the aquarium for long periods of time. Occasionally, he will get up and swim around slowly, but he settles quickly to the bottom of the tank. His breathing seem slightly more labored. I have gotten him to eat a couple small snails, but he won't take any other food. I got him this last August, so it shouldn't be age-related.
His filter hasn't been working very well lately, so when I saw him get sick, I looked at it and saw some white gunk (looked like mold) in there. I replaced the entire filter, putting some of the old filter media that didn't have any white stuff on it behind the new one to keep the cycle going.
He is the only fish in my 10g tank. I have had some algae problems. Possibly this has something to do with it?
I do weekly 50% water changes and keep an eye on water parameters after every change. Currently they are:
Salinity: 1.005
pH: 7.5
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: <5 ppm
His filter hasn't been working very well lately, so when I saw him get sick, I looked at it and saw some white gunk (looked like mold) in there. I replaced the entire filter, putting some of the old filter media that didn't have any white stuff on it behind the new one to keep the cycle going.
He is the only fish in my 10g tank. I have had some algae problems. Possibly this has something to do with it?
I do weekly 50% water changes and keep an eye on water parameters after every change. Currently they are:
Salinity: 1.005
pH: 7.5
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: <5 ppm
