GSP acting odd...sick?

[ac106]

Over the past few weeks, my GSP which is about 4"+ has been looking and acting odd.

1 First, he has had a black belly quite often. He changes color but more often lately his belly has been very very dark.

2 He has been resting on the bottom of the tank. He has never done this in the past and only started in the last several weeks

3) belly looks like he has just eaten even though i have cut back on feeding. I was def over feeding for a while but i have cut back. Even with this, he looks like he has just eaten all the time. - there are no missing tank mates


The tank stats are great. 0 ammonia 0 nitrites, low nitrates.

SG is 1.010. This was raised up from 1.005 over several weeks time about 2 months ago.

tank is a 55G with several tank mates. It is overstocked at the moment as I prepare for a house move which will divide the tank and solve this problem.

I have it well filtered with a Rena Filstar xp3 and Magnum HOT plus a UV sterilizer and sea clone protein skimmer.

He feeds regularly and is at times harassed by a tank mate which will be getting rid of. However this is not a constant thing by any means and I really don't think is the source of his behavior.


any ideas or steps to diagnose?

[Pufferpunk]

Any new tank mates lately? The SG really should be higher but shouldn't really be causing that problem. Are you planning on keeping him in the 55 by himself after the move?

[ac106]

Any new tank mates lately? The SG really should be higher but shouldn't really be causing that problem. Are you planning on keeping him in the 55 by himself after the move?

He will be with another GSP. Otherwise it will be a species tank. If there is aggression, then I have a backup plan.

No new tank mates.

[Nick]

A puffer I had that seemed very well and was a rolly polly eater died of IP's - he apparently had the opposite reaction to what most puffers with ips get, rahter than eventually starving himself, he overate whenever possible, bloating with well fed parasites and food... then one day, he started sitting on the botttom, acting weird, then he just started letting out huge strings of white poo, started breathing funny, and died. Even when he was fasted for a long period he was always bloated, I had figured he was just a fatty, but now I realize it was parasite mass from how much he was eating. It's rare to have the puffer eat until the parasites build up enough to kill them directly, usually, they starve themselves and waste away. If the fish have never been wormed, I would recommend Flubenol-15, it will work even in high PH water as a tank additive, no soaking food and no parasites surviving somewhere in the tank to reinfect. My other GSP probably owes his life to the stuff.