The Puffer Forum

I have spent the past month or so setting up a BW tank so I could recuse the GSP's fro Wal-mart. Well my tank was finally ready and I waled into Wally world to see if the puffers have survived this long or if I was too late... Well there were seven dead puffers in the tank... lost all color and they were white. (tear) but there were two still swimming. One looks pretty health actually. and one is pretty skinny and has a dark belly all the time. Besides being under fed (probably just got flake) what does the dark belly mean?

HEre are the best pics I could get of this guy...

Could be stress related, if he is eating well, give him some time. I know when I bought my puffer her belly was kind of grayish black and after being in my nice tank with yummy food for a month her belly is pure white. Check the pufferpedia too - they might have answers there.

Neither one is eating anything yet.. I have about 100,000,000,000,000,000,000 snails in their and they aren't touching them.... but they have only been here about 24 hours so I am not worried about that. and I know, that might not be enough snails for these two.

Is your tank cycled? Do you know your tank parameters? And what size is it?

Also, they probably both have internal parasites, there is an article on the library on how to kill the parasites. He looks pretty bad so you're going to need to take care of the parasites immediately.

They are also going to need brackish water. I would suggest getting the snails out of that tank and breeding them in a separate tank since they will die in the brackish water and you want to keep up with the supply of them so you can feed to take care of the puffers teeth.

Yes it's cycled and has good parameters.... Why would I put puffers in an uncycled tank with poor water quality?

I just asked to make sure that it was cycled, we get many newer posters not knowing about cycling a tank. Dark belly and not eating could be a sign of bad water quality. But since you got them from WalMart they most likely have internal parasites which they should be treated for immediately.

yea I read that post just now and it sounded kind mean.. sorry not meant that way.... If it does have parasites and the other doesn't (hypothetically) can I treat the tank and not harm the other fish? Or if is just stress and lack of food could I treat the tank as a precaution and not harm them?

If one has it then they both have it so just treat both of them. Also, the meds aren't put into the tank directly, you soak them in food so just feed both puffers the food.

Ok thats better I guess I feel better soaking their food than treating the tank... Since this is my fish GSP tank. I have another question you could answer.... I have the tank set up like I set my DP tank but I think these guys have different requirements. What would a GSP tank need to look like?

They just need a lot of decorations, pretty much the same as dps.

Here is a picture of my GSP, Milton's 30 gallon tank (he is in there by himself)

Spock, I got my GSP from walmart as well, and he has been acting odd latley. I thought it was just a fungal infection but maybe he has internal parasites as well.

Is it a problem to feed them the parasite meds if he doesnt have them? Should I wait to find out? I read the parasite article and the only thing he does alot of is eat a ton. He can eat alot (Almost a whole krill) but he will turn his nose up to other foods.

The reason I ask is because my guy is pretty thin. He has a big fhead and body and then V's sharply into his tail, he doesnt look like many of the other fat puffer pictures on here. I thought it must be because Walmart just underfed him and he picked on pretty badly (He had approx. half of his tail fin and his rear dorsal was nibbled on as well.).

SO what would you say? IS it just a good precausion?

I would say yes treat him. Its a good precaution and most GSPs will have IPs when bought, especially from Wal Mart. Since they are caught from the wild its something all GSPs should be treated for.
You can also tell if your puffer has them if he poos out stringy white stuff, those are the worms but thats not always a sign so it isn't the greatest method of telling if they have parasites.
After you treat the puffers they will poo out all the parasites and you'll probably see them on the gravel. Which is why you should vacuum the gravel very well after treating them.

Also, if you're worried about using meds when he doesn't really have them you could have a try at the pumpkin seed method, I've heard it works but its kind of pain to make the pumpkin extract.

Is that a little dent i see on the second pic? Thats how one of my puffers came in, when i first got them, i didn't know much about them at the time, i used them to cycle a 2.5gallon tank. They eventually got healthy after regular feedings and by keeping the water parameters stable (not an easy task for a 2.5gal tank). Give it time, you'r puffers will get healthy.

Spock, i just have to say your tank puts my tank to shame.
You must have one happy little puffer.