I posted to the Puffer Forum FB page, but maybe someone here will have seen this before (there are more ppl on here)
My GSPs are sick. Please help. Here is a video of one of the puffers, the skin isn't on the top of his back...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H5Wy2ma ... SWXSDMXUYw
I have never seen anything like this. I have had my three green spotted puffers around 3 years. They have been full marine for about 9 months. We do water changes at least once a week.
We went out of town for a week and came home to sick puffs. Please let me know if you have ever seen anything like this. All of my non-puffer fish seem to be fine. The puffers are acting like themselves, they're backs look bad though.
We have been adding stress coat and melafix to the tank.
They live with:
-1 Lunar Wrasse
-1 fox face lo
-1 cleaner wrasse
-2 anthis
-1 tuxedo erchient
-1 long legged star fish guy who hides under rocks (I forget his name)
-some snails, hermits, and some tiny starfish.
-Variety of corals
Other tank info:
-There are a variety of corals
-a protein skimmer
-sand and gravel mix {vacuumed regularly, any where not covered in live rock)
-two penguin 250 filters with bio wheels removed / we usually have active carbon in them, but it is removed for the melafix
-three power heads
-full saltwater tank
-75 gallons (switching to a 200 gallon soon)
Parameters:
Temp: 79.5
Salinity: 1.020 or 1.021 (some how got lower.. normally 1.024) added more after testing
NO2: 0
NO3: 20
PH: 7.8
Ammonia: 0
KH: 8 or 9
Calcium:380
Phosphates: 0.25
They eat:
-sea weed sheets
-have vitamins added to food
-have garlic extract added to their food
-frozen squid
-frozen mysis
-some times foods: krill, blood worms, mixed reef food, veggie rounds, silver sides, when they find snails, etc.
Water changes:
Normally more than once a week.
Several 5 gallon buckets
We use stress coat as water conditioner and add either instant ocean reef salt or instant ocean marine salt.
Has been set up for more than 3 years, started as fresh, added salt, stayed as brackish for a long while, slowly added salt and became full marine about 9 months ago.
Sick GSPs
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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angelaz
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 35
- Joined: Tue Jan 18, 2011 10:28 pm
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: Baltazar-GSP 1/9/11
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My other fish:
Valentine-Lunar Wrasse
Spike-Fox Face Lo
Kaboom-Cleaner Wrasse
Goldeen-Anthis
SeaKing-Anthis
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USA - Location: Saint Louis, MO
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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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suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles - Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
- Location: Greenville, SC
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Re: Sick GSPs
![[welcome]](./images/smilies/welcome.gif "welcome")
Glad you found us!
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!"