Brown Belly On 2 GSP

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Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.

1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.

2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.

3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)

4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.

5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.

We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.

While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.

Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
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drips702
Puffer Fry
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Sep 22, 2017 1:16 am
Location (country): Las Vegas,NV

Brown Belly On 2 GSP

Post by drips702 »

Hello everyone, i recently bought a tank that just happen to come with 4 puffer fish. I am fairly new to puffers since iv only had gold fish in the past, i really like the fish and i want to make sure i dont kill them.

when the guy came to my house he helped me set up the tank, he brought around 10 gallons of the old water that they where originally in.We put the gravel and a rock( i didnt have much time to set up decor because we wanted the fish in the water asap), then we put the 10 gallons of old water in the tank. I then used tap water to top it of along with conditioner that is suppost to make tap water safe. i then set up air pump and filter and got the tank up and running. i bought instant ocean salt and the guy gave me his old hydrometer to get it to the correct levels( it think they are correct, i have pic below).

2 of the smaller fish had normal white belly's, but the 2 larger ones had brown spots on the side of there belly's.


im just wondering if i used be concerned, i bought a 5 in one test strips but im not 100% sure how to read them.

we set up the tank on the 9/21/17.

i have not changed the water because i just set up the tank so i didnt think i needed to

its a 80G tank approximately 4x2

all 4 puffers are swimming around normally, they are very active and come up to the glass, they are also eating so i dont seem to notice any abnormal behavior, but im still a noobie with these fish.

Iv been feeding them some frozen half shell clams, frozen krill,a few Malaysian snails from my yard,and some earth worms that i bought at walmart. I have rinsed off all their food with cold tap water prior to feeding it to them

Im not sure if the color is there because of moving them, he did drive like 40 min to my house so they where out of the tank for maybe 1hr+


Heres are some photos

The tank
https://i.imgur.com/gkdXuLV.jpg

"Sick" puffer 1
https://i.imgur.com/0htnTWo.jpg

"Sick" Puffer 2
https://i.imgur.com/q61tsPV.jpg


Hydrometer Reading
https://i.imgur.com/A41XeFr.jpg

Water Temp
https://i.imgur.com/VEBf504.jpg
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Pufferpunk
Queen Admin
Posts: 32764
Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
Gender: Female
My Puffers: Filbert, the 12" T lineatus
Punkster, the 4" red T miurus
Mongo, the 4" A modestus
2 T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
Also kept:
lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles
Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
Location: Chicago
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Re: Brown Belly On 2 GSP

Post by Pufferpunk »

[welcome]
Dark belly can often be a sign of stress. No wonder, being moved, right? Seems you did everything right, although it would have been better to transfer over more of their original water which would have been quite a feat for a tank of that size. Forget those test strips, they're crap. Get yourself a liquid API test kit. You needs LOTS more decor though, breaking up the lines of sight. After the tank has been stable for a few weeks, switch out that gravel for aragonite sand.
library/puffers-in-focus/an-introductio ... d-puffers/
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
drips702
Puffer Fry
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Sep 22, 2017 1:16 am
Location (country): Las Vegas,NV

Re: Brown Belly On 2 GSP

Post by drips702 »

I just noticed when i got home from work that both puffers belly's were white, after i feed them some worms their belly's changed colors again.What does this mean? am i over feeding?
User avatar
Pufferpunk
Queen Admin
Posts: 32764
Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
Gender: Female
My Puffers: Filbert, the 12" T lineatus
Punkster, the 4" red T miurus
Mongo, the 4" A modestus
2 T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
Also kept:
lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles
Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
Location: Chicago
Contact:

Re: Brown Belly On 2 GSP

Post by Pufferpunk »

Mine used to please get dark when the 8th. Sounds like they're doing well. Just change the substrate and add more dacor and you're good to go!
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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