Hello all! I'm new to the puffer forums, and this will be my first post!
I have a puzzling thing going on here...
I have (had) one juvenile green spotted puffer in a 20 gallon aquarium (until they grow to about 4" in low low end brackish water ( 1.004 ). The temperature is at 80°F and the PH is at a nice 7.8-ish thanks to my aragonite substrate. I have two sponge filters on either side of the tank, along with a 30 gallon hang on the back filter with carbon and sponge.
The water is hard, and my nitrite is around 2ppm and nitrate around 20ppm. I know these are higher than they should be and this is kind of what I'm here for.
I fed my puffer once a day with either frozen bloodworms, or freeze dried krill soaked in vitamins.
My question is... How do I keep the nitrite and nitrates down? I do 25%-50% water changes weekly, and only feed once a day.
I have had 2 puffers die on me in the past month. The first I assume was from internal parasites, which I tried to treat with general cure, but he was just too far gone from the start. (He was emaciated and had nipped fins) The second one was a fat, healthy gsp that was super active. Yesterday, he started breathing heavily and his eyes looked very white instead of orange/yellow. Later that day he started doing barrel rolls, and thats when I knew he was going downhill fast. I put him in a net breeder box that sticks to the side of the aquarium for the night, and next thing I know, he's just gone. All the puffers that passed were under 6 months of age.
I don't know what I'm doing wrong here, other than the nitrite and nitrates. I refuse to buy another until I find out what's going on. Thanks in advance!
Other things I've used in the tank: Prime dechlorinater (used in bucket of new water for water changes), VitaChem, PraziPro.
GSP's keep dying on me?
Forum rules
Read this before posting!!
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.
Read this before posting!!
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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Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32773
- 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: GSP's keep dying on me?
ANY nitrite at all is toxic! A cycled tank would show none. How EXACTLY have you cycled this tank? Read all the Qs above, to see if you've missed anything.
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!"
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
Re: GSP's keep dying on me?
Tank has been up for over a month. When I first got the tank I used the beneficial bacteria you can get in bottles to start the cycle. Didn't get any fish for a couple of weeks after that, and the only changes I've made was adding the aragonite a couple of weeks ago. The PH was already at the point it needed to be, and it didnt sky rocket when I added the crushed aragonite. It stayed the same basically. (7.6 - 7.Pufferpunk wrote: ↑Fri Feb 15, 2019 10:29 am ANY nitrite at all is toxic! A cycled tank would show none. How EXACTLY have you cycled this tank? Read all the Qs above, to see if you've missed anything.
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Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32773
- 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: GSP's keep dying on me?
By adding bacteria & not feeding it (with ammonia), you have waisted that bottle of bacteria. In 48 hours it would have starved & died off. So you have an uncycled tank. You can remedy that by adding the product directly to your filter, at the same time you are adding your fish.
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!"
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
Re: GSP's keep dying on me?
Ahh okay, that makes sense. You see, everyone in stores and online said just use the bacteria. Now I feel just awful for the poor guys. I also wish I found this forum when I was cycling my tank because of the information on here.. I just purchased more bacteria, and I'll be adding an ammonia source. (not fish)
Thank you for letting me know!
Thank you for letting me know!
-
Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32773
- 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: GSP's keep dying on me?
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!"
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"