tail curled green spotted not eating :(

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puffysr
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Re: tail curled green spotted not eating :(

Post by puffysr »

I decided to go with the 55 g tank, it came out to $160, he was really nice and helped me set up everything.
The salinity is 1.005

He included the dresser free (kind of ugly but its functional and I can store stuff in the drawers), a bag of salt (good for 50 g), and helped me to move everything from his place and set it up in my apartment. My bedroom isn't that big and the tank takes up half of one of my bedroom walls. He included an airstone and some biorocks in the filter area, he was going to give me a coral piece but didn't bring that one but said I can stop by to pick one up (I am not sure if he meant free but I think so). He set it up to drip acclimate so now the 3 puffers are drip acclimating now. I'm really happy with it so far, I hope the puffers will be ok in there for a while.

One thing I'm worried about though is that he used to have it as full saltwater (probably around 1.025) - will making it brackish at 1.005 kill off of the bacteria in there?

I don't know why the 4th puffer is sick, he's still in the 15g tank barely moving. I am not sure if he has an infection or is sick because he was bitten.
The other 3 puffers poop isn't stringy, this one isn't making any waste so I can't tell.

I'm not sure where to put the sick puffer - I could put him in there too with a fish divider (he recommended using egg crate from home depot as a tank divier). Because the 15g when I bought it had been cycled as a freshwater tank. Or should I try to make the 15g brackish? I got all the puffers at the same time so they either would all have parasites or all not right? I am not sure why the other 3 are ok and he is sick. And It's been almost 2 weeks since I've had them - they were fine the first few days then they got sick later, I think they could have potentially all survived even in the smaller tanks. The first one died of bad water but the second one was bitten and I think the third one was bitten too and I wonder if they had attacked each other.
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Last edited by puffysr on Sun Apr 19, 2015 8:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
puffysr
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Re: tail curled green spotted not eating :(

Post by puffysr »

Can you tell from a fish's poop if they have parasites?
This is from the 3 that are eating but there is a black spot near the eyes on one or two of them and some black spots near their stomach
(the one that isn't eating wasn't making poop when I had him in the container overnight and he's in another tank with dark rocks so I can't see if he is now anyways)
I was afraid to leave him in the 15g overnight because he seems to be doing worse there than in the small container
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puffysr
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Re: tail curled green spotted not eating :(

Post by puffysr »

the 3 puffers that were acclimating (the salinity was about the same actually from the 10g but the 10g was 1.006 but made with freshwater aquarium salt)
when the acclimating first started they started swimming around a lot but calmed down after a few minutes
they went crazy for bloodworms (soaked in prazi pro solution) then they started attacking each other
One attacked another one pretty hard, I remember when I gave them some small snails a few days ago and they just crushed the shell
I think the 4th sick puffer was attacked the last one that I died was attacked too
Of the 3 I just put in the 55g - the small puffer attacks a lot and the largest one attacks a lot too - the medium one is the most calm, I think.
do you think I should put in 2 dividers to keep each of the 3 separate?
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Re: tail curled green spotted not eating :(

Post by eieio »

do you have enough décor in the tank that they can get out of each others' faces?
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puffysr
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Re: tail curled green spotted not eating :(

Post by puffysr »

Not now no, what's there now is just what came with it.
I'm looking into some brackish / salt plants or maybe getting some more rocks.
I have a decor from the other tank that I was thinking of moving over.
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Re: tail curled green spotted not eating :(

Post by Pufferpunk »

Puffers need a complex, heavily decorated tank, with lots of broken lines of sight. Here's mine, a 55g that my 2 GSPs outgrew:

Image
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Re: tail curled green spotted not eating :(

Post by havi »

You might consider an antibiotic. The tail on your puffer doesn't look like a plain-and-simple bite wound, it almost looks like early fin-rot. I've never used an antibiotic on a scaleless fish; Seachem ParaGuard look like it would probably be safest, but I have no idea how effective it would be.

There appears to be quite a size difference between the 3 puffers in your photo. You might need to move the unbitten one to a different quarantine tank. I'd also recommend putting lots of hiding places in your quarantine bucket. Terra cotta pots, plastic plants, tall rocks, anything to break up lines of sight. Then when your fish move to the big tank the decorations can move with them.

Be careful transitioning your tank from fresh to brackish. I increased the specific gravity of my tank by 0.002 per week, but it crashed when SG reached 1.011 and I lost my biological filter. If you change to brackish, go SLOWLY and have a back-up tank ready just in case.

Brackish plants: I have one Chaetomorpha macroalgae that was doing well in SG 1.011, though it would be happier with more salt.

Good luck!
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Re: tail curled green spotted not eating :(

Post by puffysr »

Pufferpunk wrote:Puffers need a complex, heavily decorated tank, with lots of broken lines of sight. Here's mine, a 55g that my 2 GSPs outgrew:

Image
That's a great tank, if that is the gsp on the right side (blurry in the pic) he looks big!

I know my tank is a little empty now, I'm trying to fill it up but not exactly sure what to put it in - i went to a crafts store today and kept an eye out for decor items but didn't really see something suitable. Petsmart and petco don't have brackish water plants. But I might go back for a pack of shells.

I'm looking into plants and sand.
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Re: tail curled green spotted not eating :(

Post by puffysr »

Some good news - the sick puffer is getting a little better, and I hope he stays that way. I put the whole pet carrier inside of the 55g tank so he was isolated but had access to the water. I took it out to feed him. He tried to eat a piece of bloodworm, and nibbled at a snail but didn't eat the snail. I think he tried to nibble on other bloodworms but rarely and still didn't show much interest in them. I hope he doesn't die, when I saw him the other day all black I really thought he was going to die because I remember the other one was like that before it died.
sick puffer tries to eat.JPG
I also gave snails to the other puffers (and one question I wasn't sure about is if I need to try to remove the snail remains? I'm not even sure where the snail pieces are anymore since the puffers tore them apart, but if I don't does it cloud the water?)

This is the setup now - I know it's not ideal but for now I had to separate them because they are attacking each other especially during food time. I saw one attack another one pretty hard. Do you think I should leave the dividers there? I made them from artist plastic canvas and report bindings but I suck at DYI stuff I don't know how stable it is. I failed the first time I tried - I bought a very soft fabric mesh from walmart that was way too soft. The fish tank dividers at petco and petsmmart wasn't big enough (up to 12x18) but the tank is almost 13x21 inches so there will be a small gap that maybe the puffers can go through.

I'm trying to find a home for at least 2 of the puffers but it's hard to find someone who will take them there snot that many people with experience that actually want tiny green spotted puffers and want to dedicate a tank ready to them, I tried to make a post on craigslist and so far no luck. I wish I only got 2 to begin with, but I wouldn't have just gotten 1 because I would have thought that he would be lonely by himself, so I guess I wish I just got 2 of them to begin with.

The tank was changed from marine (where he had it) to brackish, by the guy who gave me the tank when he helped me to set it up. Would that kill the bacteria that were in the tank/biostones? It probably went from 1.025 to 1.005 salinity. I just bought some safestart and am not sure if I need to add it in or not.

I went to petsmart today and asked them for pest snails but the guy said he can only give me 5, but I was happy to get some. But I feel bad feeding snails to the puffers because I like snails, I used to have snails as pets and I don't like killing them.

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When the sick puffer gets better where should I put him?
I can't buy any other tanks for a while, maybe in another 2 months or so.

Other tanks
15g - Freshwater has an odessa barb in it. He's (well, she) kind of grown on me. I had bought it as a complete set up so I hope it's cycled although I forgot to turn on the filter the first day so maybe some of the bacteria died off.
10g - empty at the moment, I had added aquarium salt salinity 1.005 but I need to clean it out because there was some medication added to it and no cycling and the puffers were in there a couple days so the water might be slightly bad. I had removed the activated carbon since I was giving medication (melafix). The filter doesn't seem too strong.

10g tank.JPG
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Last edited by puffysr on Tue Apr 21, 2015 4:19 am, edited 2 times in total.
puffysr
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Re: tail curled green spotted not eating :(

Post by puffysr »

I'm trying to find plants/sand to add to the tank

sand - the guy who gave me the tank said he uses playsand from homedepot. they sell 50 pound bags for $4. are those safe?

plants
Chaetomorpha macroalgae - where did you get this, do you have to order it online?

what do you think is the best plant choice(s) and where would you buy it (or just order it online?)?

thanks!
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Re: tail curled green spotted not eating :(

Post by Pufferpunk »

Yes, play sand is fine but you must rinse, rinse, rinse!!! Chaeto is a SW plant, not suitable for BW. Here's an article on BW plants but to tell you the truth I really wouldn't bother, since you're gonna be raising the tank/s to SW eventually. viewtopic.php?f=8&t=14694
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=4792

As far as your puffer getting lonely: library/puffer-care/alone-but-not-lonel ... fers-solo/

Everything shown in my GSP tank is fake. Those "large" puffers are what a normal adult GSP looks like. ;)

I really like how hard you're trying with these guys! Is there any good, reputable LFS that will take proper care of some of your puffers & sell them to good homes?
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Re: tail curled green spotted not eating :(

Post by bertie 83 »

Aquarium salt? Do you mean marine salt?
It's amazing how easy maintenance is. If done regularly and thoroughly
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Re: tail curled green spotted not eating :(

Post by puffysr »

bertie 83 wrote:Aquarium salt? Do you mean marine salt?
the 10g tank was the first one i got at that time i only had aquarium salt
i was thinking of cleaning out that tank and refill it using marine salt for brackish water and when the 4th puffer recovers to put him in there
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Re: tail curled green spotted not eating :(

Post by puffysr »

i saw some videos of giant GSP on youtube they are so cool
i came across the article of keeping puffers alone and they wont get lonely


i'm trying to keep a journal for my puffers
yesterday the sick one ate 3 worms
today at least 5, he nibbled on a 6th one and sucked out some of the blood but didnt swallow it and nibbled at some others
His belly inflated a little but he looks so emaciated :( There is a circle on his cheek - I wonder if it's a bite mark from one of the other puffers?
Screen Shot 2015-04-22 at 9.58.17 PM.png
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Does he look like he had parasites? there were some parts poking out of him I thought it could be a parasite but I think it's his bones. when i first took the fish home they were ok at first and went crazy over bloodworms and i wondered why the other ones are ok and how the parasite would have gotten so big so fast. (im not sure what size the parasites would be if he had them f they are microscopic or visible)




when i put his container back in the tank the other puffer bit my pinky finger and it kinda hurt before sometimes they would nibble on my fingers i think when they get larger they will get dangerous



maybe a reef or coral store but are the people who buy from those types of places usually good owners?
its still just a pet store that anyone can buy from they probably get regular people who go there for just the fish, since the stores sell both fish and coral pieces
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2 T biocellatus
C valentini
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Re: tail curled green spotted not eating :(

Post by Pufferpunk »

Yes, that circle is a bite from another puffer. Yes, he looks like he has IPs. Good thing he's eating--I assume the worms are medicated?
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

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