porcupine puffer not eating or swimming

[Krchan2]

So I currently have a 3 inch porcupine and have been living in my 100 gallon saltwater tank with no other inhabitants. He been eating fine. His diet normally consists of baby shrimp and krill. I recently had a dogface puffer pass away the other day and since then he just floats and lays on the sand.
Could it be the fact that he's lonely and is depressed. Would it be a coincidence that he acting strangely after the death of my dogface puffer. When my dogface puffer was alive, my porcupine was living happily and would be always hungry and always be comming up for food and now I noticed he's slowly floating at the top and kinda uninterested in the food I'm offering him. I did noticed he had a little ich on his fins but white streaks did appear on the back , but I wasn't really worried then because he was eating and swimming pretty healthy.
Okay so I used a medication known as dip away today and noticed that the ich gone away but the other problem is that he's not even floating just laying on the ground and I tried to move him just to get him going, but he looks like he having trouble swimming, and I really dnt know what to do about it.. Is he sick.. Or could it be that theirs no other tankmates with him at the moment.
I'm very worried

I check all my levels( here's the readings)
Ph: 8:2
Ammonia: between 0ppm and 0.25
Nitrite: between 0ppm and 0.25( a tinge of purple in it)
NitrAte: 0ppm
Copper:0ppm

 

[Steve L]

Never heard of dip away, what is it? If it has copper chances are good that you may have poisoned the puffer since they don't usually take it very well. Did you treat the tank or did you treat him in a separate tank or container? Also, how long has your tank been set up? You shouldn't be showing any measurable nitrite in an established tank.

I doubt if your puffer is sad, he probably has whatever killed your dogface.

 

[Krchan2]

Answering your first question, dip away is a freshwater and marine disinfecting dip, it is an external tank treatment which prevents and controls bacterial fungi and parasite disease on fish. Dipl away contains sodium chloride and merbromin. I dnt think it contains copper, I treated him in a separate container not in a hospital tank.
My tank has been set up for a long time(9 years)
I had my baby porcupine for about a month and I dnt wanna lose him,
My dogface puffer died due from a bacterial infection,
Can a little tinge of purple in my nitrate kill my porcupine puffer??

 

[Snid]

I'd be curious how effective your Dip-A-Way is now, as it has been off the shelves in the U.S. for nearly a decade because of its high Mercury content. Merbromin itself is no longer produced in the U.S. since the late 90's due to fear of Mercury Poisoning.

The small amount of Nitrite could be a small spike caused by the loss of your Dogface depending upon how long he was in there for and when you tested. I'd keep testing to make sure that it passes. In the meantime, I'd also do a water change to reduce it even more.

Dogface Puffers can be aggressive fish (highly territorial). Adding a tank mate may have caused extreme stress and aggression. Especially considering the Porcupine Puffer does indeed prefer to swim with other fish and can do well in a 150 gallon tank. The two may have been like Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, the Odd Couple, and may have had some battles. That stress may have weakened their immune systems enough to get them sick.

Did you Quarantine the Porcupine before adding him into the DT? If so, for how long?

 

[Snid]

P.S. - If you decide to get rid of your Dip-A-Way, because it contains Mercury it is advised that you don't just throw it away or burn it. Here's a little tidbit to help you out from the EPA...

EPA encourages the recycling of mercury-containing products rather than disposing of them in regular household trash. Recycling of mercury-containing products is one of the best ways to help prevent mercury releases to the environment by keeping these products out of landfills and incinerators.

Many states and local agencies have developed collection/exchange programs for mercury-containing devices, such as thermometers, manometers, and thermostats, and recycling programs for fluorescent light bulbs. Some counties and cities also have household hazardous waste collection programs. For information about these programs, contact your local collection program to find out whether you can drop your old thermometers off any time or whether you should wait for the next collection effort in your area. You can also use earth911.com to find collection programs in your area -- just type in "thermometer" or "mercury" and your zip code to get a list of programs that accept mercury-containing thermometers.

 

[Krchan2]

I hate to say this, but unfortunately my baby porcupine puffer passed away today. I think dip away did indeed poison him. I did call up my LFS and they said it was okay to use it on him. They probably assumed it was like melafix or some common medication.
And thanks, I will dispose of it quickly! Lol I just assumed you just throw it away or burn it

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

sorry to hear

 

[Snid]

Awww... Sorry for your loss. It's so heartbreaking to have such losses, especially when you are trying to find cures and help them.

 

[Steve L]

Did you treat the display tank with the mercury laced meds? If so it sounds like that could cause you some problems down the line depending on what livestock you will have in the future that is sensitive to mercury. I've seen entire stream habitats wiped out by mercury leaching into the water from 150 year old mines here in California. Some of the sport fish in San Francisco bay can't be eaten often, or at all by pregnant women because of mercury contamination. It's really nasty stuff.

 

[puffermike]

I've had so many puffers over the years that I have witnessed puffers lose a tank mate and become depressed. What I've noted throughout the different species is that it usually applies to puffers that pair up and are the same species. In captivity puffer fish become quite different from their wild counterparts. I had a pair of chelonodon patoca that got fairly large and would bury their bodies in the sand to sleep next to each other every night. When one of them passed away, the other lived for a year or so afterwards but she barely swam, ate a lot less and would lay on the sand bed 80% of the day and that's just one case. I've seen similar behavior with tetraodon nigroviridis and a couple other species as well. I can't say for sure if this was what caused the stress for yours but I will say that from my observations over the years of this particular species I would not doubt that it plays a part in their immune system.