The Puffer Forum

great news!
good going on getting test kit so quick
you#ve saved your gsps from nitrite poisoning as well
echo what ppg says, water changes and removing excess food, and probably keeping your feeding light until you get your params under control!
good luck & keep us posted!

Wow u guys. One of my little fellows didnt make it. After the wc i started getting almost immediate responses out of the other 2 and the one that didnt eat today was sucked against the filter again. when i moved him it looked like some of his skin rubbed off and he was totally limp but still alive. i isolated him and here it is an hour later and hes for sure dead. im stunned.

awww thats really sad to hear
unfortunately usually by the time we realise theres a problem, it usually can be too late.
just hope you have saved your other two in time.
the response from them sounds good, keep up the WC's and testing your water
again sorry bout ur wee puffer...

Did you pick up a liquid test kit for yourself while you were at the store? What is the nitrite now?

He did, nitrites are very high, he's doing water changes etc.

I thought those test results were from the LFS. I would think at nitrite of 10, nothing could live in there.

Ya i got the test kit. Ive done 2 water changes and my nitrates and nitrites are still a little high, 5ppm. ive used damn near half a bottle of Prime too. my puffs look tired, they're only swimming when i feed them and the rest of the time theyre chillin on the bottom or in a corner. what should i do?

you will need to keep up large water changes until you get your nitrite down
how big are your water changes at the moment?
only time will tell if your remaining gsps can survive the nitrite poisoning...
are you feeding them every day? that will add to your bioload as well
good luck

At this point I'd suggest doing about a 95% water change, and stop feeding for a few days.

alright cool thanks i was just about to ask that. Ive been feeding em just a couple dried baby shrimps, i was afraid to stop feeding them but that was my first thought. i changed 50% yesterday and 50% again today. Their color has gotten better and they're cruising around a little bit too now. Im totally shocked man i feel like i take extremely good care of both my tanks (I have a 55g with blue crays and gourami), and I really didnt expect this to happen so thanks for yalls help. Im moving the gsps to a 55g as well, im cycling it right now, i think that will help a lot a lot i just hope they can hang in there for a couple more weeks.

good to hear they look better
keep up the water changes to get nitrite to 0
and like nick says not feeding them for a couple days will help also

I'd be doing 80%, 2x/day. No ammonia?

ammonia is still 0 and i changed another 50% yesterday and woke up about 15 min ago to find another guy didnt make it. I dont know what the walrus is going on but i only have 1 left!

aww im sorry another one died on you.
it does sound like nitrite poisoning, its like a silent killer
when your fish show signs, damage has already been done.
do all you can to save your last one.
good luck!

My last little guy doesnt look like hes gonna last much longer. the water is ok now but i think hes sad cuz he lost 2 buddies in 2 days i dunno. Did i crash my whole tank? like i said i take super good care of both my tanks and this was totally devistating. Id like to try again and again with GSP's but i dont want the same thing to happen. i was just gonna drain my tank, switch substrates, replace all my filter media and start cycling this tank all over again. any suggestions?