The Puffer Forum

My tank does have marine salt in their I keep it at about 1.007 but I was also wondering if it was necessary to add electrolyzed salt that. I noticed the coloration of my sickly puffer this morning. His belly is still white but i noticed that where his white belly borders his greenish color all around him their is a dark gray area on that borderline is that bad?

Electrolyzed salt = aquarium salt. I don't even put it in my fresh water tanks unless I'm treating them for ich.

okay my puffer has been at the top of the tank for 3 days now....so assuming the worst that they should both die what do you guys recommend that I do to stabilize my tank for my next green spotted pufferfish so I wont have these same problems?

Are you still doing WC? Add an airstone too.

Yea ive been doing water changes everyday, about 30-40% ive been using water from water bottles and from a brita water purifier. I went in twice to check the pH of the water it goes down about .4 evertime I go in. So last time I checked it was 8.4 it should be around 8.0 now. But, even without the water changes I still dont get why hes sick. Everytime I put food in their he hustles to hte top of the tank and then after he eats he goes to the top of the tank.

also I have noticed that the ghost shrimp in my fish tank are swimming around. They are also swimming at mid-tank towards the top. Is their something wrong with the gravel? Why are they acting so strange?

you need to give us exact water parameters.. numbers..

ammonia..
nitrite..
nitrate..

keep up the water changes, why are you using bottled water, is your tap water really bad?

also, how much and what are you feeding..

if the tank is cycling and you are feeing lots then it will could be helping pollute the tank, causing ammonia/nitrite spikes...

may explain the odd behaviour..

my nitrite is at 20 ppm
my nitrate is at 0
and my ammonia was tested yesterday at the pet store and I was told it was fine
The only thing high is the PH which is a little less than 8.4

I feed my pufferfish once a day at noon and I feed him frozen blood worms, I dont feed him too much he eats about 80 - 85% of the food I put in the tank.

I have also noticed that he is more lively at night. I get off of work at 2am and when I usually like to sneak into my room and check on him with my cell phone light. To be honest with you he looks alot better at night he has no gray coloration but this morning he gets his gray back and hides behind the filter.

Did you mess up the nitrite and nitrate? If not your nitrite levels are unbearably high,

i hope so... else those fish are in trouble..

just a thought, my GSP and Ceylon both hate tank lights, go solid black as soon as you put it on, but bright colours as soon as the lights are switched off...

if your nitrites are 0 .. and NOT 20 ...

then that could be it...


There is still no need to use bottled water, declhorinated tap water is absolutely fine, unless there is something really bad with you tap water..?

Are you defrosting the bloodworms & draining off the juice (a brine shrimp net is good for that)? That extra crap can really mess up a tank after a while.

Is your other puffer doing okay? i hope those little guys get better!

Ok thats my bad that was a typo on my part the nitrate is 20 and nitrite is 0. Unfortunately, the smaller of my two puffers, the one that didn't show any signs of dark belly and was swimming around all the time mysteriously died last night. I had to go to job training all day so I havent been able to do another water change. I haven't defrosted the frozen blood worms because I give them such a small amount but it sounds like it will help so ill start doing that. I picked up some pH downer today on my break at work but I was told not to use that because puffers are so sensitive. So I was thinking that if I just put in like 1/4 of the recommended amount each time I do water changes if that would be okay? Also in regards to the background I recently took it off to clean it because some water had leaked onto it and I havent placed it back for a few days and I just put it back now and I think it makes a difference.

Aside:

Call me crazy but every night before I turn off his light he is hiding behind the filter. But, I usually stay out late and go online around 1AM usually because of my job and for the last 2 or 3 nights while im on my computer right next to the fish tank I notice that he comes out of hiding and swims around the tank. Yesterday I took my cellphone light and shined it next to the tank and saw that all the gray spots on his belly and sides were gone, I thought I was just seeing things. Well, I turned off his light earlier today and got home just recently and noticed him swimming again. So this time I turned on the fish tank light for about 5 seconds and he was swimming around, with the most perfect colors. His belly was perfectly white and he had his bright green spots. Absolutely no signs of gray or stress marks anywhere. Could it be that my fish is nocturnal? Or does he not like the light? Is he just a non-social puffer? I read stories online about all these puffer owners that have fish that follow their finger and get excited to see them and I look at my puffer and all he does is hide behind a filter. I know my pH is a little high but I dont understand why he does that. Let me know what you guys think, and thanks again for all your comments and tips.

Dennis

I decided to leave the light off for today to see if the light is to strong. So far hes still looking gray and hiding in his corner. So I dont think its the light that he has problems with.