Lethargic & discolored GSP

[julesee]

I Have a GSP in a 2.5 gallon tank, i'm keeping him in this tank until i get a larger tank (soon).
I just recently bought a Tetra Whisper 3i in-tank filter, because the undergravel filter was inadequate and the tank's water was getting polluted. I kind of modified the filter with some biological media from my fully cycled FW tank.

I have just recently started to introduce marine salt to the small aquarium. I added about 2 tbsp of salt so far. Unfortunately i don't have a hydrometer or refractometer so i don't know the sg. I have an api FW master test kit, but i'm not sure if this will work right, since i have put salt in the tank. When i tested for ammonia, the water in the test tube turned very dark yellow, and it's as if you could see grains of salt in the water.

I have read the rules, and understand that I am not providing enough information, but I figured the tests would be inaccurate. I realize that i shouldn't have bought the puffer on a whim, and should have had a nice sized tank readily cycled for him, but that's just not how it happened. So knowing that, let me explain the puffer's behavior. When i first got him, around 2 weeks ago, he was doing great, keep in mind that at this time, the tank had no marine salt, and was running on a piece of walrus undergravel filter. Anyways, he has been doing great, but today, he has been on the bottom of the tank, rarely swimming around, and he is very black. When he gets up and moves around, he gains back his brightness, but some of his belly remains black. He seems very weak as he swims around, and he will not eat. The only things that have changed in the past few days, is i fed him two snails yesterday, and i added 1 more tbsp of salt. (yes, i dissolved it properly.) Today, I was panicking, and changed about 50% of his water without adding salt, assuming maybe i added too much salt too fast. I also put a new filter cartridge in. He still looks pretty bad, and I'm thinking that if I don't do something soon, it will be the end of him.

I know I didn't provide very much specific info, but i just want to know if this is common, and what can be done. I'm going to start treating him with Melafix tonight. Thank you in advance :]

[Myaj]

It sounds like you may have added too much salt at once, which killed the bacteria that was established and is recycling the tank. This is why you'd be reading ammonia.

I just recently did a test and added 1 tablespoon of Instant Ocean to one gallon of water, which raised my salinity to 1.003. If you put two tablespoons into 2.5 gallons, you'd be really close to going over the .002 increase each week that bacteria can handle, especially if there really isn't a full 2.5 gallons of water in that tank (usually they don't hold what they claim).

Best thing you can do right now is water changes, several times a day if you can. A little salt won't hurt, but right now you just want to get him stable again. Actually, I take that back, the best thing you can do for him right now is to get a bigger tank (even a rubbermaid storage tub). You need to dilute that nasty water.

But here's your plan, keep the water as clean as possible, don't feed him for a few days to avoid adding more ammonia to the water, and get him a new, larger tank as soon as is humanly possible. If you have another tank running, steal a little gravel or some decorations to get more healthy, good bacteria back in with him.

But you really, really need to get him in a bigger tank. He's just poisoning himself in that little thing.

[julesee]

Thanks for the reply :]
When I change his water, I've been using water from my larger cycled tank. Is this okay?

[Nick]

Use FRESH conditioned water. Old fish water will not be as polluted as what he's in since he's uncycled, but is not clean either, and does nothing to help cycle a tank as the bacteria live on surfaces, not in the water column.

[The Fisherman]

Are you using pre-heated water for you're water changes? In a 2.5g tank, any amount of temperature differance is going to be not good for the GSP.

It depends on what the parameters are in you're main tank where you get the water from. I'm assuming you're main tank is cycled, with no ammonia, or nitrItes. If its you're only source of water with the correct temperature, I would go for it. As long as the pH etc. etc. are pretty close to what hes in.

I believe there are very tiny ammounts of bacteria in the water column, but not enough to significantly help with cycling.

Is there anything wrong with you're tap? Maybe chlorine, heavy metals, etc. etc. It may not be the salinity increase causing you're problems, but sounds to be the most likely. I've recently come across a scientific paper that suggests most strains of bacteria are actually incredibly resistant to salinity change, but I haven't yet gotten a chance to give it a read through.

It sounds like the salinity is too high for that test kit. I had similar results when I tried a FW test kit on my SW tank.

How much have you been feeding him?

Good luck, and keep us updated.

[julesee]

Thanks for the concern everyone
I just went out and bought a slightly larger tank.
I'm waiting on a 30 gallon, so until then i figured he would be okay with a ten gallon, considering his size.
I bought a Aqueon 4 stage filter, two 50/50 compact coralife bulbs, and provided plenty of decor. I decided on using sand, and i heard 100% silica playsand is okay to use, so i rinsed it for a few minutes then put it in the tank, it settled down after a few hours but is still pretty cloudy, so i'm just waiting for it to clear up. Before i put the puffer in, is this sand safe?

Anyways, during his healthy time in the 2.5, i fed him frozen krill, and frozen bloodworms. I alternated between the two each day, but for the most part he was fed the krill. He had a very hearty appetite and would get nice n fat after i would feed him. Since his odd behavior and loss of appetite, I've tried to feed him using tweezers, but he didn't even want to look at it. His belly is getting very black, and his color is becoming dull. I did find out that the lfs sells bio-spira, and they keep it very cold, so that's good. I figured by tomorrow the tank's substrate will be settled and i can add the bio-spira, adding the puffer immediately afterwards.

[Pufferpunk]

Cloudy tank from sand "dust" will not disturb the puffer. Poisonous ammonia will. It's OK to move him right now.

[manutius]

the immediate issue here is the tank size so move the puffer asap, which you have under control. Another thing to consider is the diet being fed. Puffers need some crunch in their diet so snails, mussels etc are needed to keep the teeth worn down. There is a great article on feeding in the puffer library under the "learn" header at the top of this page

[julesee]

Well, I'm having second thoughts on the playsand. It sticks to the him, and looks almost as if his skin was peeling off. His skin is fine, but I don't know if the stickiness is harmful or not. I made a risky choice after stressing about his tank, and decided to see how he'd do in my other tank. The other tank has two angels, a dojo loach, and a little danio. I know these fish are not supposed to be in the same tank, but since the puffer is not hungry, he just swims around and ignores all of the fish. So I've decided to keep him in there until i can pick up some bio-spira tomorrow. I'm really pressed for cash right now and the bio-spira runs for about 20 dollars. So I might have to wait a while for the tank to cycle...which worries me. I only plan on keeping the puffer in the community tank until i find out if the sand is safe for him. Has anyone else had this experience with sand?

Btw i have fed him two snails in the past week or so.

EDIT** I forgot to mention that on his right side, his gill is pretty large, and you can easily see it moving, whereas on his left side, it's very narrow and you can hardly see it! I don't know, it's just kind of odd, almost as if had some kind of defect.

[Stormylee]

That's stress from the nitrites and ammonia it's hard for him to breath. He will eventually die from this. Perhaps you can cover some of the sand with some rocks from the other tank to keep it from getting on him?

[Pufferpunk]

That "slime" with the sand sticking to the fish is normal. He will murder your other fish.

[Boxermom]

Agreed, puffers should not be put into community tanks as one of two, usually both, things happen. The puffer will shred the fins and/or kill the fish, or they will starve because the other fish out-compete them for food.

[julesee]

Yes I know it's very risky to put him in there, but it will probably save his life. He has been in there for 24 hours now and he is already looking much better. His belly is starting to turn white again :] I'm keeping him there until tomorrow when i can goto the lfs and get some bio-spira. He didn't eat today when i fed the tank though. He looked at it, and thats about it. Maybe he's just building a appetite so he can massacre my tank tonight. O_O

[Boxermom]

Puffers don't bite other fish because they are hungry. They bite because that's what they do, its in their nature, hungry or not. If they were my fish, I wouldn't risk the angels especially, not even one night. You'd be surprised at the damage they can do overnight. I'd put him back in the 10g since you are getting Biospira tomorrow, and do a big water change using declorinator and preferably Prime if you have it.

[julesee]

Well I did all I could for the little guy, but he died on the 5th :[
I decided to go for a fw puffer, but this time i'm going to do lots of research beforehand. My LFS is very nice, they have thousands upon thousands of gallons of tank space, and they have a whole area just for brackish fish, even displaying the sg. They are perfect. They have a fw puffer there labeled "b b puffer." My gf asked them about it and they told her it only grew a little over an inch... but they look pretty cool. Anyhow thanks for all of your help, I absolutely love this community and I am definitely going to do what i can to help out. <3