Hi everyone, new to the forum, thanks in advance for your help. I have had a GSP for 2+ months that has been a constant struggle. We thought he would die early on, as our newbie mistake was not cycling the tank before putting him in. He lived and looked a lot better for awhile, in regards to not having the sickly dark underbelly and skinny body. Here recently, however, he appears extremely thin and almost disfigured in the rear, with the black mark that goes from his mouth to his end. We know its the ammonia, as its about at 2.0 right now, and it has pretty much been about that high since the beginning, regardless of whatever we do. Ive also read that a thin rear of the fish might be caused by salinity, which always seems low at <.25. We had been trying to slowly add aquarium salt, but could not get salinity to rise. For the last couple days, we have been slowly adding water that is usually used for our saltwater tank. He was worse today than before, but he was definitely sick before we started adding any saltwater, however. When I walked in today he was balled up floating around the tank, and seemed very lethargic. I know they sleep, but he is definitely sick. Any advice on what to do to help him and how to combat the ammonia and salinity. In regards to the questions above:
1.8 pH, 2.0 ammonia, nitrites about 0, nitrates at about 2, salinity about .25
2. 10 g, but our green spotted puffer is the only fish. Is this just too small? We have a couple fake plants and a fake coral piece, he does not seem to be bored. He always seems to be "asking" for food.
3. Lately, went from one feeding a day of unfrozen brine shrimp to at the most once every other day in order to help with ammonia. The fish store people believe that the tank is still cycling, so they recommended avoiding water cleaning for as long as possible, so we were doing a 30-40 percent change once a week for a couple of weeks. Before that, twice a week. In the past two days, we have done two 30% changes as hes been so sick. Weve been using AquaSafe for the water and StressZyme for the ammonia. Too, weve put an ammonia filter pad in the filter.
4and5. Addressed in first paragraph.
Any Ideas?
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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pufferlover1686
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 5
- Joined: Mon May 24, 2010 6:19 pm
- Location (country): United States
Re: Any Ideas?
Some great information in our library. Try the link before.
library/puffers-in-focus/an-introductio ... d-puffers/
library/puffers-in-focus/an-introductio ... d-puffers/
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Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32975
- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: Puffers I have kept:
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Re: Any Ideas?
Double post.
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!"