The Puffer Forum

I need some help with my puffer. I have two in a tank (females) and up until recently everything has been fine and dandy. But now, one of them is constantly dark on the underside and only rarely turns back to the normal white color and hides with her head in a plant a lot sitting on the bottom of the tank. The other puffer is just fine and doesn't exhibit any of this behavior. There hasn't been any fighting that i've seen seeing as these two were raised together and nothing new has been added to the tank. anyone have any ideas as to what might the problem be? I thought maybe sickness and I put an anti parasite tablet in the tank, which i have done before and that didn't help. turning dark on the underside isn't something new for the puffer, she has always been more on the pissy side, but i'm worried now that she is dark MUCH more often that something might be wrong. the pH is a little on the higher end (7.5) but I am constantly struggling with it to keep it down (this has never seemed to be a problem before). I have had the puffers for a good 4 months now and everything has been fine up until this point. also, the temperature has been at a good level as well with no fluctuations. I have live plants in the tank as well as a plecostomus (not sure if that's spelled right). I feed the puffers a mixed diet of boodworms and brine shrimp supplemented with live ghost shrimp every once in awhile for some environmental enrichment. please help if you have any insight. thanks

~P

This post needs to be moved to the Hospital forum. You need to answer the questions in red there and atleast let us know what kind of puffers they are.

From what you're saying, however I am 75% sure you have GSP's, which are NOT freshwater, they are high-end brackish fish. I am confused though by you saying that they are both female, because there are very few puffs which have any sexual dimorphism, GSP having none. I'm am positive that your problem is if these ARE GSP, then you need to move them to Brackish water VERY soon, and I am positive that you do not have a tank that is atleast 60 gallons, not a lot of people do,(don't quote me, you might have a tank that big) as GSP require 30 gallons per puff. You also need to seperate them from the pleco, because pleco cannot live in brackish water. PH really does not matter for fish, as long as it does not fluctuate, in fact, GSP would prefer a higher PH (probably around 8.0 ) because they are close to the ocean.

Now, if what you have arn't GSP, ignore everything i just said

What are you adding to change the pH? Fluctuationg pH is more stressful than a steady one that it a little off.