GSP Help

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
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.
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Megatron

GSP Help

Post by Megatron »

I am terribly sorry but I dont really have the ph, nitrate, and all that stuff, my mom knows it but she's currently tending to my little brothers broken arm! If it is truely needed for this let me know and I can for sure ask her.

I have a bit of an addiction to puffers. It started back in May when they showed up at Walmart. Because of this addiction I tend to get a puffer pretty often and I have 8 small ones and two big ones now.
I have had one big one (I'm assuming he's an adult) named Mondo that was doing pretty well for the longest time. About two weeks ago though I noticed he stopped eating as much and was always grayish on the bottom like he was scared or stressed. I asked some different people at Walmart, and Petsmart and they said he was probably lonely with all the little puffers.
Last week I got another adult and he seems to be doing fine!
Mondo on the other hand still is reclusive and gray.
Plus he's eating less and less, actually I never see him eat :(
He looks like he's lost a lot of weight too, so I am really worried.
I've had no problems with any of my puffers and none of the others seem to be acting this way.
I've tried feeding him blood worms and frozen krill, both which he used to eat all the time!
And now he just wont :(

The tank size is I believe 30 gallons.
But since I just got another adult I am working on upgrading to maybe 100 gallon or more. I'm just waiting to have the money :(
The only inhabitants are my 8 small puffers and my 2 adults.

I feed them everyday, twice a day, once in the morning and once before I go to bed, however leaving them enough time to eat before I turn off their light.
Their water gets a 15 - 25%change every week to a week and a half.
And a 50% change twice a month.

They have real ocean water (diluted with water) and real coral in their rocks.
the only things that have been added recently was start right for when I changed the water, and Melafix to treat the new adult.
the aquriums been set up since late May early June.

I'm assuming Mondo didn't need a friend, because it isn't helping.
So any ideas why he won't eat!
I really want to help him to the best of my abilities!
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bonnie3188
Figure 8 Puffer
Posts: 127
Joined: Fri Oct 20, 2006 7:48 am
Location: Australia

Re: GSP Help

Post by bonnie3188 »

Hi there,

You need to read this article about GSP's. http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/lib ... d-puffers/

Basically, your problems are that GSP's need 30 gallons each, so 10 in a 30 gallon is way too many fish. This will be affecting your water parameters and stressing them out.

Also, try feeding a wider range of foods, as specified in the article. Fish can survive without eating for quite awhile (over a week) so Id be focussing on trying to rehouse most of the puffers first. Your puffer might have internal parasites (IP's) and treatment would be required.

Good luck, but I think you definately need to find new homes of at least 8 of your puffers as soon as possible.

Hope this helps
-Bonnie
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Pufferpunk
Queen Admin
Posts: 32979
Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
Gender: Female
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Location: Greenville, SC
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Re: GSP Help

Post by Pufferpunk »

Are they all GSPs?
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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manutius
Former Staff Member
Posts: 1316
Joined: Mon Dec 11, 2006 3:49 pm
My Puffers: RIP Clooney the Mbu :(
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Re: GSP Help

Post by manutius »

Also there is no need to feed twice a day this coupled with the overstocking will be what's causing the problems. Most of us feed our puffers less than 3 times a week with some only getting fed once a week.

We really need to know what species they all, post pics or look in the pufferpedia if you are not sure
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