The Puffer Forum

Just bought a green spotted baby puffer today and the tank is set up exactly how the tank should be for him and yet he was swimming fine but now hes going in corkscrews and not using one side of his fin when he swims but nothings wrong with that fin,theres nothing wrong visably in the tank or with the fish ,is he stressed or whut???????his belly is white and his spot on his head is bright so whuts wrong with him,he swims up top then lets his self fall to the bottom,i tried feeding him but he wont eat,what is wrong?!?!!also he lays at the bottom of the tank like hes not alive but hes not belly up though,just sitting there idle.

Please answer all the questions above in red.

Hi guys,
Well it appears my little GSP is sick and I'm not sure how treat the little fellow. I'm guessing it's ich because of the symptoms I have read about. I have another GSP in the tank and it appears to be doing fine.

1) PH- 7.8-8.0, Nitrate- ?, Nitrite- 0.25 ppm. Ammonia-0.00 ppm
2) 25 gallon tank with 2 GSP, plecos, Bumblebee cichlid (1.5") , and Electric Yellow cichlid (1")
3) Feeding: frozen brine shrimp, frozen krill
4) 25% water change last night, products added: aquarium salt, Tetra Aquasafe, and Kordon Rid Ich+ ( 2 treatments within the last 48 hours)
5) Tank has been setup for over 2 months, fully-cycled within 2 weeks.

Thanks for you help

Welcome. First, start by doing a major water change and get that ich crap out of the tank. That will cause more problems, especially for puffers, than it helps. Then read the ich treatment article in the hospital forum on treating ich, and then read Pufferpunk's GSP care sheet in our library, then read the food articles in the library. You are using a too-small tank, have incompatible tankmates, are using the wrong type of salt and not feeding healthy food. And if you are showing nitrites, your tank isn't fully cycled and/or is struggling because the bioload is too high.

I have to agree with Boxer there, you need another tank fopr the GSP's I would suggest about a 55Gallon tank

Yep, Boxermom is right on. Several things are wrong and need to be fixed asap.

I agree with everything Boxermom said. I'll only add that GSP's are brackish puffers (when young) that will eventually need a full-marine setup as they grow. Neither the BBG's or the yellow lab cichlid will be able to tolerate the salinities required to keep the GSP healthy.

They don't actually need full marine as adults, they need high end brackish. Most of us tend to keep them in marine, though, so we can use live rock and a skimmer to help keep the tank stable and clean.