Green Spotted Puffer with Sunken Belly?

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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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holly_puff
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Green Spotted Puffer with Sunken Belly?

Post by holly_puff »

I got a new green spotted puffer today and he has a light sunken in belly. Should I worry that he has parasites or did the pet store just not feed them properly? What are some other signs of parasites other than sunken belly, so I know what to look for? Thanks.
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J-P
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Re: Green Spotted Puffer with Sunken Belly?

Post by J-P »

you can treat for IPs regardles; better safe than sorry.

If you take a look at the poop and it is stringy white or a "string of pearls" look that is a good indication (but not conclusive) that IPs are present.
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Re: Green Spotted Puffer with Sunken Belly?

Post by Blaine »

More than likely they just did not feed them properly. I have seen lots of stores trying to feed them flake food?!?

If they don't have stringy white poop or the 'string of pearls' poop they are probably o.k.

Like JP said,...the treatment for IP's is fairly innocuous so you can treat just to be safe.
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Re: Green Spotted Puffer with Sunken Belly?

Post by Pufferpunk »

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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