The Puffer Forum

My GSP LOVES frozen brineshrimp cubes. He even eats them out of my fingers.

Josh,
One thing you've done right is that you've found this forum. Next, you should re-read all the recommendations and follow them. If you have not done that water change, do it now - with enough instant ocean dissolved in 2 or 3 clean 5 gallon buckets to raise the SG to 1.001. Slowly add this water off the top of your bucket via a drip line - avoid getting any undissolved crystals into your tank & match the temp (what is your temp?). This corresponds to a salinity of approx 2.5ppt which is a good start. The LFS should have told you what conditions the puffers were in. You will need to gradually raise the salinity with each water change. Do you know anybody with a reasonably deep drinking water well? That would be a better source of water and usually have better hardness. You will increase the salinity as you reduce nitrite with the water change.

Don't give up. Don't get overwhelmed. Don't get your advice from that LFS. I would not have recommended a puffer to someone so new to aquarium keeping. Do not underestimate the value of the advice you read in this forum. As a biologist, I am very impressed by the knowledge shared here. Good luck.

and please stop using that 'cycle' product. It really is only making things worse.

I wont use cycle anymore, I just changed about 25-30% of my water but Im not seeing any decrease in the nitrites.

my temp is at 78 degrees. Could you describe how to raise my salinity? is there any guide for that?

that's odd, you should see a drop....have you tested your source water for nitrites?

To raise your salinity: When you make up water to add back into your tank after a water change, add some salt to it...not much, in my opinion, enough to change the water you're putting back in read around 1.002 on a hydrometer...if you continue to do this, over time, the salinity increases. Don't add salt too often though, it's too hard on your puffers .

My source tested for 0 nitrites, I will give it an hour or so for that water to mix well and test again.

Do you have some instant ocean and a hydrometer? Its simple dilution. If you have 20 gallons of fresh water in your tank, mix 10 gallons of new water to a SG of 1.002 and then do a 50% water change. You will end up about 1.001 in your tank (don't worry about leaving a bit of undissolved salt in the bottom of your bucket - puffers like to sleep on the gravel and I've heard undissolved crystals could burn them). You can easily increase tank salinity each week by .0005 by doing a 50% water change with 1.001 water each time.

These fish live in the estuary. Like many estuarine fish species, they move downstream as they age (in their first year). The salinity is higher downstream. You need to try to match the physiological conditions the fish require in the wild. As adults, they live at or near full-strength sea-water.

you guys keep going back to salinity but thats not the issue. It seems to me like they are both suffering from nitrite poisioning. Id really like to solve that issue before I go on adding salt to my tank.

Why would bio spira die without fish for 36 hours, would 2 fish make enough waste to keep it alive that quickly after adding it?

The beneficial bacteria you need to establish a healthy tank (contained in Bio-Spira) with 0 nitrites & ammonia will die off (starve) within 24 hours of having no food (fish waste) to eat. This is why you must add fish at the same time as B-S.

A brackish water fish put into freshwater will be more stressed by toxics of all sorts, including nitrites, and even more vulnerable to disease. If you had the same nitrite level at the correct salinity, the fish would be less stressed.

I raised over 20 million fish this (and every) spring, and I added salt to minimize the stress they endure in a hatchery. We even add salt to freshwater species to reduce disease and increase hardiness in handling and transport.

This hadnt occured to me until just now but I have been changing water from my bathtub which is on a water softener but I filled the tank with water from my hose which isnt, Could that be a problem possibly?

Most fish adjust to hardness, although GSPs do prefer hard water. This is one of the reasons for crushed coral/aragonite substrate (in addition to keeping the pH around a steady .

JOSHBOX wrote:you guys keep going back to salinity but thats not the issue. It seems to me like they are both suffering from nitrite poisioning. Id really like to solve that issue before I go on adding salt to my tank.

you asked me how to raise the salinity..didn't you?

lisalisa wrote:

JOSHBOX wrote:you guys keep going back to salinity but thats not the issue. It seems to me like they are both suffering from nitrite poisioning. Id really like to solve that issue before I go on adding salt to my tank.

you asked me how to raise the salinity..didn't you?

your right, sorry im just really panicking right now because Im worried they might die and Ive grown really attached to them. Im gonna let the water do its thing overnight and see whats happenining tomorrow mornining.

That's ok...just making sure I'm not going crazy If your source turned out fine (both?) than I agree to call it a night, you've got it down to a possibly non lethal level (positive, i guess?). Check it and do another large water change tomorrow morning, and go get some more bio-spira.