Burping a GSP

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
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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.
trichardson15718
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Re: Burping a GSP

Post by trichardson15718 »

ok i dont think its air... what do i do if its worms?
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Re: Burping a GSP

Post by Pufferpunk »

You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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Re: Burping a GSP

Post by Pufferpunk »

I have merged your 2 similar topics, to avoid confusion.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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Re: Burping a GSP

Post by trichardson15718 »

ok update. i got a gravel vaccum, ammonia test strips and stress coat. im going to clean up the gravel, test the water and add some stress coat. i will post my findings again shortly.
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Re: Burping a GSP

Post by trichardson15718 »

gravel cleaned, ammonia level is deadly, got an ammonia tab to fix that, sadly my sick puffer has passed away. i took him back, they offered a replacement, i accepted. this guy looks much healthier than the other, a bit bigger though. i picked him from the 2nd tank of puffers, which all looked healthy, the first tank was aweful, 2 dead fish, one with some sort of growth on his head, and they were all very dark colored and not swimming well... very sad. i let them know they are not caring for them properly, and asked that they discontinue to carry them. they didnt hear a word i said, the responce i got was "fish are not our #1 priority, we get to them when we get to them".
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Re: Burping a GSP

Post by trekenk »

Trichardson so sorry about the lose of your puffer. I don't know if you understood what we were trying to tell you. In a 5 gallon tank with 2 GSP it may not matter if the puffers are healthy or not when bought they just won't stay that way in such a small tank, it is just to small for them. I am sorry but I really think you shouldn't of went out and got a replacement until you had upgraded, as by your post of the Lfs not caring for them properly you must care but are just not prepared as many people who find the puffer forum aren't. In the end your going to need a 60 gallon tank but for now your going to need a 30 gallon ASAP. The people at the puffer forum are here to help and answer any questions, they have learned through years and years of experience and mistakes. Bottom line no amount of knowledge is going to help if the tank is inadequate to support the life. Good luck.
Last edited by trekenk on Fri Apr 02, 2010 10:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Burping a GSP

Post by Pufferpunk »

I would have held off on that replacement until you had a 60g for the 2 of them. I'm afraid more deaths to come... :(
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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Re: Burping a GSP

Post by trichardson15718 »

I found a 55 gallon tank with lid and stand for 100$, is that too much? sounds reasonable to me. I am going to purchase and cycle that tomorrow. hopefully for now i can get things straightened out : S been a rough couple of days. i think if i can get them to hang out just for a couple more days, they will much happier in their new home. now for cycling the new tank, should i use stress coat and aquasafe?
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Re: Burping a GSP

Post by trichardson15718 »

also i am having the HARDEST time getting the ammonia down. i put 1 tab as it said, and did a 25% water change. waited an hr, ammonia hasn't gone down at all
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Re: Burping a GSP

Post by trekenk »

trichardson15718 wrote:also i am having the HARDEST time getting the ammonia down. i put 1 tab as it said, and did a 25% water change. waited an hr, ammonia hasn't gone down at all
There is no magic cure to get rid of ammonia. Save your money on adding anything to the tank besides aquasafe when doing water changes. Look at pufferpunks signature water changes, water changes, water changes. Do 90% twice a day until you get that 55 gallon set up. Read this article on emergency cycling library/water-filtration/emergencycycle/.
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Re: Burping a GSP

Post by Flutter »

The problem isn't just ammonia anyways. It's just something we can measure to give an idea of other things that are in the water. That goes moreso for nitrate as ammonia and nitrite are poisonous and should always be 0.

Do more water changes and you'll notice that ammonia going down and that's the only thing you should be doing to get rid of it. Good luck on getting the 55gal!

I wonder if it's best to put the puffers in the larger tank as soon as you get it and then deal with cycling that. Perhaps get dirty media or something. I think it would be better instead of leaving them in the 5gal. Does anyone know the answer to that?
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Re: Burping a GSP

Post by trekenk »

Yes get them in the 55 gallon ASAP. I doubt whether that 5 gallon is cycled anyways. as the OP stated in their first post they didn't know how to cycle a tank.
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Re: Burping a GSP

Post by eieio »

the 55 gallon + Dr Tims might be the best way to go here...........
http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/p ... atid=18986
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Re: Burping a GSP

Post by Pufferpunk »

I agree--put the puffers in that 55g tank as soon as you've got it set up.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
trichardson15718
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Re: Burping a GSP

Post by trichardson15718 »

i cant wait to get them in the new tank and get everything set up tomorrow. they arent acting right. ammonia is nearly gone, but the small one seems to not be fully digesting food, the bigger one seems to be hanging around the bottom of the tank like the other one. after i get them moved, what is a sure sign of sickness like worms or something? thank you guys so much! you have all been such a big help! i would have very dead fish by now if not for you!
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