I bought 2 spotted puffer fish for my aquarium on Friday. The water is a cloudy white and it stinks, and there are quite a few bubbles at the top. What should I do??
Answers:
It could be from debris from your gravel being churned up, but, if it stinks, it's the water doing it's cycling. The cloudiness is part of the cycling process and is a sign that it has started, but as you have fish, you can't allow it to continue, aside from the stinking issue, or it will kill your fish. You need to do a 50% water change immediately. Then get a test kit, drops not strips, and test for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates. You need to constantly monitor the water and do 20% water changes, probably every other day, to keep the ammonia down while the tank cycles. Don't clean your tank during this process or it will just force the tank to have to cycle all over again. While you're waiting for your tank to cycle, read up on the nitrogen cycle so you can understand it and how to do a successful cycle and then also about how to properly clean and maintain your tank so that you keep the beneficial bacteria and have a healthy tank.
If its new, did you rinse it out and let it sit for a min or two (No Soap or Chemicals) before first use?
fish poop?? maybe they have the runs?
give them some fiber ;-)
The cloudiness isn't something to really stress out about at this point. That is typical to the beginning of new tanks and it is a bacterial bloom of beneficial bacteria needed to keep the water chemistry in proper balance. The smell I suspect is probably from over feeding. If your total population is just those two spotted puffer's I don't think this is going to be directly related to waste production. Make sure when you are feeding, that you only give them enough food they will eat entirely in 2-3 minutes. Excess food in a new tank is not a good thing as when it begins to decay, will begin to convert into ammonia and your biological filtration, meaning the bacteria that is blooming now, is not at a level capable of oxidizing all of it at this point.
A note on those spotted puffers. I haven't kept one myself, but see the local stores selling them. I believe these are brackish water fish meaning the salinity of the water is needed to be higher then that of fresh water, but not quite the levels of ocean water. The smell maybe associated with an attempt to bring the water to brackish levels and it's not quite right, or the water was not adjusted at all, and the puffers are reacting to that. I don't know this for sure, but am thinking this may be other possibilites. For now, just keep the food reduced and keep testing your ammonia levels.
JV
If you have only 2 spotted puffer and your tank water is as bad as you describe, your tank should be relatively smaller, what size is it by the way.
Firstly your tanks not cycled, thats why the cloudy water, foaming and smell is due to high bio waste (Ammonia, uneaten food, rotting plants, etc) in your tank.
Fastest way to solve the problem is to do 50% water. Do you have a filter in your tank, you should let the filter run and let nitrifying bacteria established themselves in the filter media, that will get rid of the cloudy water. If you have no filter, please go and get one.
To help with the smell, you can also add Activited Carbon into the water and that should further reduce the smell from your tank.
Hopes this helps.
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You need have a filter cycle for tank, for the filtration of the cloudy water inside, and for the smells bad problem; put a piece of charcoal in the water to eliminate the odor.
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