Green spotted puffer predicament!
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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edgedetection
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Sun Mar 14, 2021 5:18 am
- Location (country): United States
Green spotted puffer predicament!
Before I begin, I apologize if these are noob questions and I understand that I should’ve done more research to begin with but at this point, I want what’s best for the fish. I just bought these two green spotted puffers for my 45gal aquarium at a fish store. I have two small koi, an indian mud moray eel, and a pleco in the tank. The guy at the fish store told me these guys were easy to take care of and they’d be just fine in my tank as long as I fed them properly and cleaned my water regularly. I noticed on day 3 that one of their bellies started to turn black and later on the other one too. When it was time to feed them, only one of them swam up to eat and then all the black on him quickly went away and his green became brighter. The other stayed near the floor. I gave him some krill by hand and he started moving around while the black simultaneously started to go away. They seem alright now but that led me to do a bunch of research on these guys since I figured the fish salesman just wanted to sell them to me and didn’t care about letting me know exactly what I needed to know. I’m now aware that these guys must live in brackish water in order to thrive and that the blackness generally means they are stressed out or something. I am now more aware of their diet and how to properly take care of them. I read in many places that these guys are often sold by fish stores in freshwater when they are babies but require BW to stay healthy as they grow older. So here’s my predicament: I really want to keep these two as I love their personalities but I can’t change my tank water to brackish because of all the other fish in there. I don’t want to return them either because I’m afraid the fish store guys will just dump them back into the freshwater tank they were in at the store and then sell them to someone else who probably won’t care as much as me. Is there any type of solution here? Besides me buying another tank? I am considering buying a second tank but that would mean me spending $150-$200 on a tank that I would assume would have to be at least a 20 gallon and then I’d need supplies, a filter, and more. If I do go that route, what should I prepare to buy? Please, if anyone can give me some good advice here, I would really appreciate it.
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Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
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Mongo, the 4" A modestus
2 T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
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Re: Green spotted puffer predicament!
Hi, sure wish you ask these questions before you bought them! That size tank is only good for one adult.. GSP, so that's a size you're going to have to buy, 20 gallons won't do. See if you have a local aquarium club that can take the 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!"
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"