The Puffer Forum

The same thing that the person in the other post (the GSP seizure one) described is happening to my guy...

I'm trying to get him out of this tank as fast as I can but I can't move him right away. I'm checking all my nitrite/nitrate/ammonia levels and they're perfect. I don't know what to do I really want to help him... I changed a big portion of the water and nothing seems to be helpig him.

Moving this to the hospital forum. Please answer all of the questions at the top, especially the water parameters. We need specific numbers, "perfect" doesn't tell us anything.

sorry moving to hospital

pH- 7.0-7.2
Nitrate: 0-5.0
Nitrite: 0
Ammonia: 0

10 Gallon tank (I know its too small trying to rehome him quickly)

Other inhabitants: Red Flame Dwarf Guorami, Otocinclus, small tetra, 5 ghost shrimp.


Water change cycle: 25% every 3-4 days.

Feeding: GSP was fed his first snails today. Other fish are fed tropical flakes twice a day.

Products: API Tap Water Conditioner, Aquarium Salt, and I recently used an Ammonia Clear tablet because when I checked the ammonia levels yesterday they were at about 0.5.

Tank has been up for about two months, but I had to disassemble and reassemble it a week and a half ago. As for my cycling process... I did this incorrectly as I simply followed the directions on a tropical fish tank starter kit manual. They simply told me to set up the tank and wait a day before adding fish. I got fish about 2 days after setting up the tank and they have been living in it for the 2 months its been up.

Recent changes: The puffer has only been in the tank about 4 days. Ghost shrimp and snails were the only thing added since.

If I had already fixed the issue, is it possible he would still receive these cramps for a short while, or would he begin acting normal almost immediately?

Sorry for the large amount of posts in such a short amount of time, I feel really bad for this guy and I'm trying to do everything I can. I guess I'm just going to change the water even more frequently. Is changing the water too often also bad?

No, discus breeders do constant 100% WC daily.

You should really be using marine salt for the puffer (like for a SW tank), not aquarium salt. They're not the same thing. Although you will probably kill the current tank mates by adding it, so as I think you already know, this puffer needs to be in his own brackish tank asap (ghost shrimp will live in brackish, but the puffer will probably eat them).

I would keep up with large daily water changes, just know that the puffer won't be happy until he's in a true brackish setup. Raise the salinity slowly so you don't kill the biological filtration (approximately 0.002 per week). You'll need to get a hydrometer or a refractometer (more expensive, but MUCH more accurate) so you can measure the amount of salt in the water.

Trying really hard to get him back to a pet store, as I'm simply not going to be able to provide what he needs. The water changes are definitely helping... I guess I'm literally just going to have to do between 50-75% water changes daily.

Does anyone know if the GSP's color will return if he's properly housed?

It should unless he's really fargone.

I think he's going to be alright if I make sure the water stays clean and I can get him into a better tank soon. I was happy to see he just ate his first ghost shrimp and he's looking a lot livelier = )

Glad to see you're trying to do your best for him. Too bad you don't have another tank for him. You'd make a good pufferdad!

Big daily water changes are what you are going to have to do.

If you had ammonia readings yesterday, this tank is not anywhere near cycled and adding that ammonia tab might have set you back even further (removes the ammonia thus starving the bacteria, which means your tank can't cycle).

So keep the water changes going and get that new tank ASAP.

Thank you for the advice... I'm afraid that now that you mention it and I read the article more thoroughy, it makes sense that the tank is not properly cycled and I only wish I had read the cycling article before getting fish/ removing the ammonia. We emptied and cleaned the tank before I brought it up to college, and I'm sure the tap water must have removed all of the bacteria.

Once I get this whole GSP situation straightened out, I'll be sure to correctly handle this whole cycling process.