The Puffer Forum

Hey people:

Quick couple of questions, first: I have a brackish tank set up, in it i have 2 green spotted puffers, 1 Figure eight puffer and 1 south american puffer, also it the same tank are 2 scats one silver and one green and finally a Mono Argentus. My first question is the smaller of the 2 gsp is what looks like kinda shy, he usually stays away from the rest of the fish, seems to sit on the bottom of the tank during the day like they do at night. He also seems to be hiding, at the time of this writing he currently sitting near the top of the tank in the corner. I have observed him eating some of the bloodworms i give him but not much he does not attack the bloodworms like the other fish do. Also every now and again when i think he is not doing well, he will perk up and swim around and up and down the glass like the other puffers. Should i be worried or will he eventually get more active?? He is the smaller of the two GSP. No visible signs of anything on the outside of his body. The tank water is around 81 F, PH about 7.2 and i just did a 30% water change cleaning out the bottom of the tank.

Now for the second question, the south american puffers teeth need clipping, i have read up on how to do this with clove oil and cutical clippers, i tried it tonight but got kinda nervous after he went into a sedated state, so i put him in the other dish of tank water until he came around. Now he looks like he has some minor patches on his body, would this be from my hands?? I used a net as the article said to do and used my hands to grab him through the net. Will he be ok with the patches, is it do to the stress of trying the clipping?? I will try it again in a few days. Any other ideas on this. I have fed him as much snails as i can get in our small town but cant get them quick enough.

What are your perameters, and what size tank is it? Your tank is probably overstocked, and most those fish require different waters, GSPs need high brackish-full salt when full grown and 30 gallons each, F8's need low brackish and 15 gallons for the first F8 and 10 for every additional one, and SAP's are pure FW and need the same size tank as F8's. Mono's need higher BW-Full SW like GSP's and get pretty big pretty quick. I can't remember what scats need, but they are definitely brackish, I think they are lower brackish like F8's.
Back on topic, your GSP is probably stressed from overcrowding, or perhaps suffering from nitrite/ammonia poisoning.

I can't help you on the trimming the teeth part though, but don't feel bad about his teeth being overgrown, they could eat nothing but snails and would still need a tooth trim.

As far as using clove oil for teeth trimming--the more often you use it, the more chance of it developing brain damage from lack of O2, so whenever you knock him out this way, you really should use it to the best of your advantage. Get a 2nd pair of hands, if you're too nervous to do alone, especially since you need to pull the lips back when you trim.

Please post tank size & water parameters: ammonia, nitrite, nitrate & SG. CP is correct--your SAPs need to be removed into a FW tank & the F8s into their own low-end BW tank, so you can raise the SG of the remaining fish. Also, you need to be using aragonite sand as substrate for the BW fish, to buffer the pH higher, to around 8.