The Puffer Forum

Last week i bought a small green spotted puffer, however i soon found that he could not stay in my goldfish tank. This was not because he was bitting their fins but because the goldfish were bullying him. I put him into the only other tank i had which was a 1 gallon tank i use for the "Hospital" . As soon as i put him in the new tank he started to swim around more but stopped eating and his eyes turned white. I noticed that he had small white dots on his fins and near his gills so i took it to be Ick. I put a medication into his tank that i have used on other fish before but he seems to not be quite as well. he is now staying at the top of the tank and is having trouble swimming around. help!

Puffers which are scaleless are very sensitive to medications and poor water quality. They can not handle certain meds. What type of meds do you use? Goldfish normally are kept in colder water. I don't know what yout goldfish tank temp was but it sounds like the stress your puffer has been through brought on some problems. Check out the great articles in the puffer library:

http://thepuffer.s464.sureserver.com/fo ... /hospital/
http://thepuffer.s464.sureserver.com/fo ... ed-puffer/

Perhaps they will help you some until someone else with a better suggestion can help.

Everything StormySkiez said is true. Puffers just can't handle bad water conditions or a lot of medications.

Your best bet would be to return him to the store, find him a new home, or read up and prepare yourself for taking care of him properly. I hope he survives, keep us updated.

In the mean time, change that water in the bowl frequently.. his own wastes are going to be poisoning him.

well the water temp in my tank right now is 77 and the meds that i used said they were ok to use on puffers and other saltwater and freshwater fish. he is now back in the 10 gallon and my goldfish are in a new tank. I made sure that i put him in the old tank because everywhere i read it says puffers are not good fish to cycle a tank with. he is doing better now that i put him in the larger tank and his eyes are orange again but he still won't eat. what couldbe causeing this? i did a 50 percent water change adding no new meds thinking that maybe if the meds were less concentrated he would be somewhat better.

another thing i read said that their bellies change from white to grey when they are unhappy but his belly has never changed color. also he has the black lines between his mouth and his eyes. Could it be from stress from moving him from one tank to another?

You need to go out and beg, steal or borrow a 10G tank, (you will need bigger but for now, a 10G will do)

Get him in it immediately. He WILL die in that 1G.

Then do a 50% water change DAILY for at least 3 weeks whilst the 10G tank cycles.


If he survives all of that, then you can learn about the long term food, space and water conditions these lovely fish needs.

My gsp's have small black lines by their mouths. The odd thing is you can't see it in my signature. Your guy probably has the normal black markings. That's good you were able to move the puffer back into the larger tank. What size tank is it?

Give your gsp time to adjust and try to feed in a day or two. He is stressed so he is not eating atm.

What is the name of the meds you used? Did the meds get rid of the ICH? Here is the article on treating fresh water ICH if indeed your little guy does have it: http://thepuffer.s464.sureserver.com/fo ... tal/fwich/

the tank is a ten gallon tank and the medication is called Quick Cure and is for curing Ick and other parasites.

Quick cure = formaldehyde + malachite green. Bringing the temperature up to 86 while aerating the tank well and adding aquarium salt will take care of ich just fine.

thanx for all the help. hopefully pepperoncini will start to show signs of immprovement in the next few days

Aww, what a cute name! I hope you see improvements.

And

How big is the tank you have the goldfish in? Goldfish need at least 10gallons per fish (preferably 20gallons for the first fish and 10gallons for every fish after that). And then comet goldfish need a ton more space that that and should really only be kept in ponds.

As for your puffer, the 10gallon should be okay for a while, but you'll definately want to look into getting him a larger tank. A good way to reduce stress is to add lots of decor so he feels more secure and has places to explore and hide. You'll also want to do a lot of water changes until he gets better. At least 50% daily.
We have a great GSP article in our library here, and you can also check out my website (there's a link in my signature).

Don't use any ich medications, puffers are extremely sensitive to them. Treat with only salt and heat.

I have had one of the goldfish for 3 1/2 years and the others i have had for almost a year now. I have also kept many goldfish before this so i am not worried toomuch about them. To be exact i have one that is 5-6 inches and 3 that are 2-3 inches in a 5 gallon. i am not too worried about them because i had kept 12 goldfish in a 10 gallon for 3 years with none of them dieing. ( the reason they finally died was because i put a new fish that my sister had gotten me into the tank and it turned out to have dropsy which all but one of the fishes got.)


as for the puffer tank, i am doing 30-50% water changes daily and he is now swimming around the tank and ate a small amount of bloodworms this morning.

Good news about your puffer.

Honestly, you really need a larger tank for the goldies asap. Please research the care requirements for goldfish and you will learn what their needs are. Death should not be the way to learn what size tank is appropriate for a pet fish. It is our responsibility to know before we house them.

goldfish are going into the pond once the rain stops. pepperoncini is getting a bigger tank within the next 2-3 months and i will start adding salt once he gets into the larger tank.

Very cool royalrose!