porc puffer floating tail/hip up

[c0nspire]

Hello,

I got a call from my family the other day saying that my porc puffer has been floating sideways.
He is tail/right side up, pointed on a slight angle. He is puffed up all the time, but not to the point where he is hard, hes kind of squishy, and he wont eat (silversides, peas, and shrimp)
ive tried soaking it in garlic gaurd too.

All of these issues arose the day after a 50% water change. He is in a 50g hypo tank with a dwarf lionfish, The day after the water change hypo (10ppt) ended (4 weeks) and we started to let the salinity rise via evap.

tank is 78 deg
ammonia badge is yellow
totally empty tank asides from a powerhead and a pot filter

i tried burping him, a bunch of air came out from somewhere, looked like his gills, not his mouth, but since then hes still been floating. this is the 3rd day that he has been partially puffed and floating.

If its not air and hes constipated is there anything i can do to help him move the blockage? given that he wont eat.

Also i think that the lion fish also hasnt eaten in 2 days. maybe related? we will see if he wants to eat in the morning.

 

[rosemoondust]

It is best never to do large water changes unless its absolutely vital. The reason being is that it can force your tank to go though another cycle. The general rule of thumb is 20% water. I would suggest checking your nitrates. Also, when you did the water change did you use RO water?

You mentioned that you allowed the salinity to rise by evaporation. What was the salinity before? When you do a water change you must replace the equal amount of salt you removed. So, if you tank is at .23 salinity than the water you add after removing water must also be .23 salinity. The only time you use just freshwater is to top off the tank from evaporation.

Your from bc? Nice ^^ ont here you are very lucky! nice mountains and beautiful orcas ^^

 

[c0nspire]

its a hypo salinity tank, the water was at 10ppt (my display tank is 35ppt), and i was doing a 50% every two days because it was not an established hospital tank and i didn't want it to have the large parameter swings (cycle) at the risk of harming the fish.

When we change the water we always checked, im using a refractometer for that. we would check the water we added then check the tank 30 minutes later after is mixed with the old water a bit.

Im using tap water because i have not been able to get an ro/di yet. Its tap water with amquel, we've tested the water, phos is undetectable, and there re no nitrites or nitrates, ammonia is almost undectectable.

as for the tank i did check for nitrates, test came back clear (none)

edit: i just tried to burp him and he let out a tiny bubble then a larger one about the size of a quarter, but hes still floating a bit so i dont think all of it came out, When hes not as puffed ill try again in a few hours

 

[shifty51008]

isn't 10ppt to low for saltwater fish? 13.3ppt is 1.010 and what you want hypo to be at.

 

[c0nspire]

i was right around 1.009 as per sk8r's hypo how to that is stickied at the top of this forum.

its been two days since hypo ended (he didnt start floating like this until the day we started to bring the salinity back up) anyways its been ~48 hours so far am i am at 20ppt (1.015) hoping to hit 35(1.026) by sunday night/monday morning