Tetraodon sabahensis

[anouk]

Wow what a story... great that your puffer is back to his normal health. Are you going to keep your temp at 26.6 now? I would be so scared if i came home and my water was that strange colour

It's very nice to read that you have so much dedication towards your puffers

Lol a bit oftopic but i noticed that you are from vancouver, i'm going to canada (also vancouver) in july/ august for 3 weeks how is the weather usualy around that time??

[darb]

Yes, I have him/her, it at 80 F which converts to 26.6 and he definitely seems to be more vibrant.

Well, many people come to Vancouver expecting rain, so if you like rain, Vancouver is not the place to come in the summer. Typically our summers are warm and dry. Temperatures would normally be in the high twenties and can easily go thirty days without rain also. But weather patterns have made weather less predictable and there are certainly no guarantees ...

Business or pleasure trip?

[anouk]

Wonderfull that he/she is doing better at the higher temprature. My puffertanks are also around 26/27, i believe that it is the recommended temprature although i'm not entirely sure though

Well since i'm living in holland i do not like rain in my vacation We've got plenty of rain al year through. I like a bit of sun so high twenties are great . It's a pleasure trip around canada and we are also going to visit some relatives.

[darb]

I really couldn't find any "reccomended" temperature for the Saba. The best information that I found was from a person on Monster Fish Keepers who kept a group of Sabas for almost 4 years trying unsuccessfully to breed them at various temperatures and salinities.

But the problem of flashing aside, I still think that I have a larger problem with him. From time to time I have caught him what I figured was napping. He would curl his tail to the side, roll over on that side, turn dark/black belly, hold one pectoral fin clamped against his body and flutter the other. Well I have noticed this many times and he typically awakes from it using only one of his pectoral fins for a period.

Last evening I noticed him bolt without any apparent cause and then immediately proceed into his napping routine as outlined above, this time laying on a piece of driftwood in the tank and as I watched him his eye that I could see was open and he seem to be well conscious of his surroundings.

In some ways it sounds similar to a mild seizure. I am seriously wondering if he may actually have some sort of brain damage. Another though that has entered my mind is cyanide poising. From what I have read it is still common in the Philippines and Indonesia. This would also possibly partially explain why there seems to be a high initial mortality rate with Sabas, or at least that is a comment that I noticed while looking for information on Sabas.

Anyways, as long as we have a typical summer here, you should get plenty of sunshine.

[Lode]

Is the UV unit placed before or after your biological filter?

[darb]

It is a totally independent unit that I hang on the front of the tank and move water through with a powerhead.

I actually registered an ammonia spike at the start of my flashing issue and started dealing with the ammonia with a combination of Prime and 50% every other day water changes and removed my bio-media from the tank a long time ago.

After I was done with the meds, I started skimming and maintaining 25% weekly water changes which appears to be working. Since there are no cards calibrated to brackish water, I have been relying on fish behaviour and appearance as the indicator.

About 2 weeks ago I bought a small amount of live rock rubble, dripped it down to my 1.016 and introduced it to the tank which already had 40 lbs of calcium carbonate base rock in it because I have an inert substrate. At best I am hoping that I gained some bacterial diversity and anything else will be a bonus.

[Lode]

UV should always be placed before a biological filter. This way the "killed" material will be taken care of biologically and will not simply be blown in the tank, with unwanted spikes as a result.

[darb]

[Lode]

Could maybe be the long time effects of amonia posioning, from being shipped in the past? Otherwise I have no idea.