The Puffer Forum

Hi Guys

Ive had my GSP around 2 months I have 2 in a 60 Ltr tank, the water is fine I use aquarium salt and the salinity is 00.8, ammonia good, nitrate and nitrite fine, although 1 of my puffers seemed to get lockjaw and stopped feeding, he is feeding fine now and happily chomps his food which is a mix of krill and bloodworm but recently he has gone really thin and is slowly changing colour to black. HELP whats wrong, my partner thinks his m8 is bullying him but they have swam together for around 6 months now. please advise have you had the same problem should I separate them??

Jon

Well, the water isn't fine. First, the tank is too small for two GSPs, which is likely causing problems. Second, aquarium salt is not appropriate for brackish fish. Please read Pufferpunk's GSP care article in our Library. Then please post answers to all of teh questions at the top of this forum with exact numbers. "Good" and "fine" don't mean anything to us, we need specific numbers in order to try and help.

yeah as Boxer says please post that info and we can better inform you on how to take care of your puffs. More info, the better the advice

Hi there

The ammonia is 0
Nitrate is 0
Nitrite is 0
PH is 7.6
Temp of water is 26deg

Im running an in-line tank filter and a stingray 40 pump & filter at the same time. he is eating fine but it looks like his tummy is imploding the other fish is as happy as ever so dont think its a water issue as I do a 25% water change weekly ?? please advise.

PS i have removed him from the tank into a hospital tank keeping 50% of the water and replacing it with fresh water un-salted.

it seems to me that nutritional defficiences could be one of the factors here. Krill is very poor nutrition wise and puffers fed on it do get lockjaw as you have witnessed, bloodworm too is pretty poor for its nutritious value. They feed on molluscs like mussels, clams, snails etc in the wild. Though this may not help your immediate situation I would think it is a contributing factor to the problems you are experience. Also the fact that you have zero nitrates worries me as a tank with puffer who are heavy polluters will always have some trace of nitrate, trust me I am battling to get mine down from 120ppm Check the test kits you are using as maybe the other results aren't reliable too, they can go out of date. Liquid tests are the most reliable too.

Why are you using unsatled water in the Q tank, these are brackish fish, what is your salinity in the main tank? and are you using marine salt to get the right conditions, aquarium salt is no good.

You definitely need to read the GSP care article.

I'm concerned that your tank is showing zero nitrates. A cycled tank should have a nitrate reading. Doing a 25% water change weekly doesn't guarantee good water quality.

As far as them getting along in the past, that may be true but as they age and mature, puffers have a tendency to become much more aggressive, even to tankmates they've lived with happily for years.

What is an in-line tank filter?

If his stomach is sunken in, you need to begin treatment for intestinal parasites ASAP. There is a thread about treating IPs on our hospital forum.