The Puffer Forum

First of all my water param:

PH: 8.4
Ammo: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10-15
Salinity: 1.025
Calcium: 450
Hardness: 11dKH
Tank size: 40gal

I just did a water change 2 days ago and the water measurements was from yesterday. Earlier today I checked on my aquarium and I saw my GSP's color "faded". Its black dots turned whitish/grey color as suppose to black, and its green color is light yellow.

I actually saw this last night before I slept but I figure he wanted to sleep and he's stressed out because the lights were still on, so I turned off the lights. I've never seen him like this before. He seems fine just swimming as usual, but his colors are off.

I don't know if this was the problem but I have a Tomato Clown in my tank so yesterday I bought some Bubble Tip Anemones and put it in the tank so he can host it. Could the BTA have stung my GSP because I see this black dot mark on his belly. I didn't see him get stung but he could have gotten stung by the anemone. Please HELP!!!! I don't want him to die

Yes, he could easily have been stung, especially considering that it looks just like a mass of worms, which is puffer food.

Personally, I don't think BTAs have that serious of a sting. My new bluespot toby got entangled in my tube anemone (one of the worst stinging anemones) & it was paralized & grey for a week. All he could do was move his eyes (so sad). Still has some striped scarring but is swimming, eating & blue-spotted again.

Have you done a water change since noticing this color change? Why is the pH & dKH so high? Are you adding Alk? Has it gone up recently?

Pufferpunk wrote:Personally, I don't think BTAs have that serious of a sting. My new bluespot toby got entangled in my tube anemone (one of the worst stinging anemones) & it was paralized & grey for a week. All he could do was move his eyes (so sad). Still has some striped scarring but is swimming, eating & blue-spotted again.

Have you done a water change since noticing this color change? Why is the pH & dKH so high? Are you adding Alk? Has it gone up recently?

No i havent done a water change after noticing this because I had done a water change a day before it happened.... I dunno why the PH and dKH is so high because I never add Alk and it's always been that high from the start...... I think the dKH might be around 9 or 10... as for the pH, i don't know why it's that high maybe because of crushed corals or high temp? my temp is 81F

What salt are you using? Which test kits?

Pufferpunk wrote:What salt are you using? Which test kits?

I'm using API test kits and the salt I'm using is Instant Ocean. By the way my puffer is getting better, his colors are almost back to normal.. I think he was just shocked by the sting

Good to hear! I'll betcha he never goes near that anemone again!

Pufferpunk wrote:Good to hear! I'll betcha he never goes near that anemone again!

oh yeah!! he's so cautious when he swims now. before it happened he would just "cruise" around the tank at full speeds sometimes and would sometimes bump into things.... now he's been cruising slow and watching stuff hahahah