So, I'm mad at my local fish store. TL;DR my GSP baby is grayish/black due to misinformation at fish store and now I need to save him!
Backstory: i fell in love with the GSP I saw at the fish store. Before even going to the store I had been cycling a 20gallon and cycled it as freshwater for 6 weeks. Nitrate was at a 15, nitrite zero, alkalinity 130, pH 7.8, and temp was at 80degrees. The salesperson said this was perfect for two GSP (I know better now that I've done some research). Anyway, I took his word for it and got the two.
Now: I acclimated them slowly (over the course of about 2hrs) before releasing them in the tank. Approx 6hrs later one of them had a prolapsed anus and I freaked out and did a bunch of research only to find out they *should* be in brackish water instead, and in a much bigger tank. Thankfully they were tiny so I figured I'd have time to upgrade. I planned to take him to the store the next day to see if they could help. He didn't make it through the night and it broke my heart. I took him anyway (since it had been less than 24hrs) and I took a water sample. Everything checked out other than the salinity, and this new salesperson I worked with said that it was probably from being stressed out in the freshwater (even though the other lil guy was perfectly fine, but it turns out they already keep them in brackish water at the store....which the first guy didn't tell me). Anyway, this guy told me to remove my current puffer and add marine salt mixture to the tank and then slowly reintroduce him to the tank in order to prevent the same from happening to him. So I did. I took him out, I added salt (to a salinity of 1.008) and then acclimated him back in. And now his belly is turning grayish black! What did I do wrong? And how do I save him?!? I don't want to lose another one and I know now that I should have done way more research before bringing them home to begin with...but I want to save him. Is it too late? What can I do to help?
Trying to save my GSP
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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RKnightly916
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Pufferpunk
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Re: Trying to save my GSP
How EXACTLY did you cycle this tank? Was the pufer at that same salinity at the store? Jumping your salinity from 1.000 FW) to 1.008, will surely crash the bacterial support of your fish. GSPs often swim from FW-SW in 1 day, so putting in FW (especially acclimated for 2 hours) is no issue at at all.
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!"
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RKnightly916
- Puffer Fry
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Re: Trying to save my GSP
I had originally cycled the tank for 6 weeks simply with dechlorinated water and stocked with duckweed, anubis, and Seed bacteria by AquaVitro (same as I had done for all 7 of my betta aquariums - but for 4 weeks longer since I was originally going to use this tank for a community before I went to the store and found the puffers). Once the planted part seemed to be thriving and the water levels were where I wanted them I got the GSP. I've continued to keep an eye on the water and the only thing that spiked slightly was the nitrate, which usually happens when I add fish to a new tank, but it's going down now and the water is still at a salinity of 1.008 ... The puffer still has a little gray on the underbelly, but is looking SO much better than when I originally posted. I'm guessing it was just shock? I've kept sick a close eye on him and he's active and happy and eats well, so I'm hoping it was just a fluke? I just wanted to make sure there was nothing else I could be doing better or do better next time (since I'm eventually going to upgrade his tank size and will have to re-establish his living conditions). GSP are a lot more delicate in this aspect than my betta have been so this is all new to me and I want to provide him with the best I can.