GSP Continuous Dark Belly but normal Behaviour

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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.

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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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KyleCarbert
Puffer Fry
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Jan 29, 2020 4:51 pm
Location (country): Canada

GSP Continuous Dark Belly but normal Behaviour

Post by KyleCarbert »

Hello everyone,

First time posting here, however, been in the hobby for a while now. I currently have two juvenile GSP's in a 40-gallon tank water permitters as follows:
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrite: 0ppm
Nitrate: 5-10ppm
Salinity: 1.023 Marine Salt (I know this is not the norm to bring them to full salinity this young, however, I did it over the period of about 3 months and the healthy bright white GSP seems to be thriving in the full salt)

Tank contents:
2 Green Spotted Puffers
Plenty of Rock and Silk Plants
One small mushroom frag (Took from other tank to see if they would bother it, the GSP's have not touched it)

Feeding schedule:
- Byrne Shrimp (Loaded Gut) and mysis shrimp mixture
- Once a week a clam on a half shell taken out when bellies are full

Water Changes:
10% once per week

Aquarium Age: 4 Months (First cycled using mollies, took them out and put them in my other tank when cycle finished

Medication strategy:
-Dosed two rounds of prazi pro with no success
-Currently attempting metroplex, focus, and garlic mixture however they aren't too interested in eating it
-Now I am running carbon to catch any extra metroplex

The Problem: I first purchased the 2 GSP's from a local fish store, I had been keeping an eye on the stock for a while and finally picked out two with plump white bellies who seemed to be the most active.

Upon arriving home and getting them set up in their new tank, I realized that one of the GSP's (Izzy) had darkened significantly. Ever since that, Izzy's colour has not returned to normal, and her stomach often shows signs of sinking in or emptying a lot faster than the other healthy GSP. This lead to me to IP diagnosis. However, I must say that I have NOT seen any signs of white poop.

Both GSP's are eating like piggies and are active swimming around, if it weren't for the dark colour I would assume Izzy is a healthy fish.

I can assume my issue isn't water quality as my second GSP is thriving, and the colour is bright throughout. I MUST also add that I have NOT seen any aggression between the two puffers.

I Have attached a link to my google drive folder where there is a picture of some odd black dots with large circles around them (Almost like a dartboard. There's also a video in the folder showing them eating the clam on a half shell (you can see the contrast in colour between the two)

PS: I don't know if this matters but Izzys colour often improves slightly after eating a big meal

Please let me know if anyone has any suggestions on what to do next, and I really want to see this little one feeling better :( !

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

The picture I tried to upload was too large
Google Drive Link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing
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Pufferpunk
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Re: GSP Continuous Dark Belly but normal Behaviour

Post by Pufferpunk »

[welcome]
Have you treated the food with the meds? Internal parasites MUST be treated internally. But if your puffer is swimming/eating normally, the dark coloration may just show a moody fish.
library/hospital/internal-parasites-pre ... treatment/

You also need to vary the diet more: library/feeding/feeding-your-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!"
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