first, thanks for all the great advice suggests and the excellent website. My GSP was struggling the first week and the responses I got helped tremendously (thanks in particular to Nick)
It's been a couple weeks, things were going well, gsp was improving, etc.
Anyway, today I noticed he isn't eating as much or as enthusiastically. AND his right side gill seems more open than the other side. It seems like it's straining more but the other side seems fine. He's swimming fine though does seem to sit at the bottom quite a bit though not for prolonged periods (that i observe)
I did a 50% water change and am debating primeing the tank a little more. I don't have the liquid reagent test kit yet but am still using the dip ones I got and the parameters are all within normal range.
I did have the temp up to 84 to help with a fungal thing. And, I do have some anti ammonia tablets I could use.
Any thoughts?
inflamed gill?
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.
eeeeeeeeeeeek!
I just checked in on him and noticed that his left gill does not seem to be functioning AT ALL so perhaps the right one is compensating??????
quick! am off to scan the website but any ideas would be great!
PS my filter is starting to smell...I changed the disposable one but according to the directions, the other harder one is supposed to stay put. could this be related?
quick! am off to scan the website but any ideas would be great!
PS my filter is starting to smell...I changed the disposable one but according to the directions, the other harder one is supposed to stay put. could this be related?
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Nick
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Glad to help 
I'd suggest you do not use ammonia tablets, they might crash your tank by starving the ammonia eating bacteria. Also, I do not change the filters unless they are pysically broken down so much they don't work, as lots of good bacteria live in them, and they cost money 
Ammonia or nitrite burn can cause a puffer to use his gils differently. Also, temperature is not a help with fungs, it makes it spread faster, high temperature is used to speed the life cycle of microbes like ich that can only be destroyed when in a free swimming stage, but it will only make the fungus worse, I'd put the temperature down to 76, as water with lower temperature holds more oxygen and will help the breathing of your GSP.
I'd suggest you do not use ammonia tablets, they might crash your tank by starving the ammonia eating bacteria. Also, I do not change the filters unless they are pysically broken down so much they don't work, as lots of good bacteria live in them, and they cost money Ammonia or nitrite burn can cause a puffer to use his gils differently. Also, temperature is not a help with fungs, it makes it spread faster, high temperature is used to speed the life cycle of microbes like ich that can only be destroyed when in a free swimming stage, but it will only make the fungus worse, I'd put the temperature down to 76, as water with lower temperature holds more oxygen and will help the breathing of your GSP.No matter how magnificent your successes or devastating your failures, the worlds' approximately 5 billion impoverished people could not possibly care less.