GSP suddenly sick

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
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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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Aria13
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GSP suddenly sick

Post by Aria13 »

Hi there, I'm hoping you guys can offer some opinions on what might be wrong with one of my puffers. First off here's this info:

pH- 8.2
Ammonia- 0
Nitrite- 0
Nitrate- 0-20 ppm
Salinity- .012

Tank is a 30 gallon with two young green spotted puffers (both about an inch to an inch and a half in length)

I feed them once a day, skipping a day here or there if their bellies still look full; they get a variety of frozen foods as well as freeze dried bloodworms, freeze dried shrimp, snails, and the occasional cricket. I test the water levels and do small water changes once a week and larger ones if i see a spike in ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate.

The tank was set up about two months ago and fully cycled before the puffers were added. For a couple weeks I only had one puffer (Jesse) but decided to get a second (Ganja) when I saw him at the pet store since he was about the same size as Jesse and I figured it was best to introduce them when they were young (And yes I do have a 55g tank to move them into shortly as I know 30g is not big enough for two puffers once they get larger). When I introduced Ganja he was very slightly larger than Jesse and acted as the dominant of the two, a bit aggressive at first but never actually fighting since Jesse seemed to understand his place. I also decided to treat them for internal parasites at this time because I had suspected Jesse might have had them and Ganja was looking thin with a black belly when I purchased him. I used Prazipro, soaked their food in it, and fed them the treated food for about 4 days. They both started looking a lot better and I thought they were both cured. Since then, Jesse has gotten a bit larger than Ganja (and become the dominant of the two) and Ganja still always seemed a bit thin, but healthy aside from that.

On Saturday, I noticed Ganja lying at the bottom of the tank with a dark belly. At first I thought he was just sleeping, but I realized he was looking around as well as making a sort of breathing motion. He did get up to eat when I fed them, but still didn't seem quite well and would just sorta stay in one part of the tank rather than swim around normally. Yesterday I moved from Maine to New York and the puffers actually seemed to do fine with the drive and were both swimming around normally once their tank was set back up. This morning, however, Ganja was back to lying on the bottom of the tank looking sick. I decided to treat him with medicated food, but he now refuses to eat the food that has medicine added to it. He will eat plain food, but slowly and not much of it. Is there anything I can do to convince him to eat the medicated food? Also, is there anything besides internal parasites that might be wrong with him? Jesse is perfectly healthy so I assume there must be an issue with Ganja and not the tank :(
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defool89
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Re: GSP suddenly sick

Post by defool89 »

Hmm im sorry. Whats your tank temperature? Someone will chime in
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puffykid
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Re: GSP suddenly sick

Post by puffykid »

How did you cycle the tank? I ask that because the bacteria in the tank should be able to handle all the Ammonia that they produce and there shouldn't ever be a Ammonia spike.
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Aria13
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Re: GSP suddenly sick

Post by Aria13 »

Tank temperature stays between 76-80. I cycled the tank using the method this site suggested, starting with a bacteria source and adding ammonia until everything leveled out. I guess what I said was a bit misleading, I haven't had any ammonia spikes since I properly cycled the tank; previous to the 30 gallon I had a ten gallon that I had to do a lot of large water changes on because I didn't cycle it correctly, but for the past month or two the 30 gallon has been consistent with the low ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels.
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Re: GSP suddenly sick

Post by Pufferpunk »

Does he perk up after a WC? I'd stick with a minimum of 50% weekly WC, no matter what your water rest results are. I'm surprised since you moved, you didn't just set up the 55g & be done with it?
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!"
Aria13
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Re: GSP suddenly sick

Post by Aria13 »

The reason I didn't set up the 55 gallon now is because I'm moving again in a month (college). He did seem better last night after setting up the tank like I said, which I guess would be considered a large water change. He's been lying on the bottom of the tank all day, moving to different spots a few times...he doesn't show any interest in food now and he looks thin but I'm not sure if he's lying on the bottom because he's so weak from not eating or if he's just really sick... I just wish there was something I could do to help him.
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Pufferpunk
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T lineatus
T miurus
A modestus
T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
C lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles
Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
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Re: GSP suddenly sick

Post by Pufferpunk »

I am sooo against keeping puffers in college. :( Way too many environment changes.
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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