1. ammonia:0 nitrite:0 nitrate:20ppm salinity:1.005
2. 45 gallon, 3 GSPs (they are only about 1.5 inches long, I will house them in a larger tank when they get larger). Lots of rock formations.
3. Been feeding dried river shrimp twice a day (one shrimp per GSP). I have two aquatech 10-30 gallon filters and a tetra 30-60 gallon heater. 20% water changes every 3 or 4 days.
4. The only changes I've made since I got the puffers was take out all plants so that the salt wouldn't kill them (I've had it happen before). And I added the salt several days before I put the puffers in.
5. The aquarium has been set up for 3+ years.
So I bought three GSP puffers from wal mart (yeah yeah, I know) and two of them are doing absolutely fine now (for a couple of days they would occasionally pace the glass but now they don't do that), but the largest one (almost two inches) is displaying some really peculiar behavior. I'll look at him and he'll be on the bottom, breathing heavily, and his stomach will be dark, almost black. Then, about five minutes later, I'll see him swimming around and his stomach is perfectly white. And while he's swimming around he's breathing normally, and looks 100% fine. Then I'll come back later and he'll be on the bottom again. And he seems very shy from the other two fish. What the heck is going on?
GSP lies on bottom with dark belly
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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katfemme89
- Puffer Fry
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J-P
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Re: GSP lies on bottom with dark belly
can you give us a full tank shot? I'm thinking structure, lighting and shelter...
if you follow me, you avoid stepping in the crap that I just did...
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZR55G ... pqlgec1A2Q
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZR55G ... pqlgec1A2Q
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katfemme89
- Puffer Fry
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Re: GSP lies on bottom with dark belly
I think you're onto something there, about the shelter... I have one big archway built out of the rocks, but no real hiding places. I am going to redo the rocks and make three separate caverns for all three of them to hide in. Because I've noticed the GSP in question keeps trying to hide and get under things but he doesn't have an adequate hiding spot. I will also take a picture after I get done rearranging and tell me what you think.
The tank right now looks just like this except without the plants.
The tank right now looks just like this except without the plants.
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Pufferpunk
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Re: GSP lies on bottom with dark belly
Break up the lines of sight with tall plants.
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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"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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katfemme89
- Puffer Fry
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Re: GSP lies on bottom with dark belly
I just figured out what was wrong. I took the water parameter reading before I put the salt in. (I'm a dumbass). Just took another water reading and the ammonia was 0 but the nitrite was 2ppm. Yikes! So I did a 50% waterchange and now the nitrite is down to 1 ppm. Gonna do another tomorrow, and I already transferred the filter media from my other established 55 gallon to the puffer filters, so hopefully that will help bring down the levels. *sigh*.
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sevenyearnight
Re: GSP lies on bottom with dark belly
Oops! Yeah it's normally suggested to raise the salinity by no more than .02 a week as the sudden change can kill of the bacteria. They will regroup though, but lots of water changes until then, and get some Prime if you don't already have it to help protect your little buddies through this mini cycle.
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katfemme89
- Puffer Fry
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- Joined: Fri Jun 10, 2011 2:09 am
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Re: GSP lies on bottom with dark belly
Do they sell that at petco? I also have another mom and pop fish store here in town but if they don't have it at either of those places then I'll probably have to get it online.
Re: GSP lies on bottom with dark belly
It should be easy to find.
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