The Puffer Forum

first read the GSP article in the library and make sure your gonna be able to accomidate what these fish require long term! also read articles on fishless cycling and feeding of GSP's so you know what it takes to take care of them and to make sure your tank is set up properly

second if you do decide your gonna be able to care for him then i would get some marine salt and raise the tank to 1.002 SG (assuming your tank is cycled already) you can start raising the salinity by .002 a week,

and i would buy some melafix to add to the tank to help with any wounds.

Thank you for your kindness, mynewlittlepuffer. It's really sweet of you to have the big heart to rescue the poor little GSP. I can relate to your situation because I got my GSPs from Walmart too, and I knew nothing about keeping fish at that point. However, when I got my fish, they were really healthy looking and transitioned to my new tank (got on the same day) without a problem and now I just know that I was really lucky they made it through. Yes, the Walmart saleslady told me they were freshwater fish, and I got a Pleco along with them because she said it's ok to put them together (little does she know!). And of course the more reading I do about GSPs the more I realize they NEED brackish/marine water to do well. I just wished they learned about the fish a little more before selling them to anyone, but not screwing everyone over for the misinformation.

To get back to your question, how big is your tank? Since your GSP is in a bad shape, I think it's really important to make sure the water is pristine condition for it to be less stressed out. If your tank water is currently bad, it's better to change it now than wait. If you can get reverse osmosis water near a supermarket, use that instead of treating tap water with aquasafe. If Captain Nemo Alexander Charles III is still in FW, just add enough marine salt (Instant Ocean kind of salt, never use table salt) to raise the specific gravity to 0.002. I hope he gets better.

Do not use RO water for FW. Tap water, treated with Prime is fine. The most important questions now are:
1) How large is the tank?
2) How was the tank cycled?

If you havent cycled the tank, which I am getting that you didn't based on the rushed nature of buying this fish (been there too) You are going to need to do frequent (daily in this case) LARGE water changes(per PP's sig line).

Best of luck to you, but be sire your parameters are pristine and you should be able to pull him through.

I have a 10 gallon tank for the time being and it wasn't cycled. I freaked out when I got home and scrambled to put together the best tank I could. I keep getting mixed reviews though on wether or not I should mess with the pH. I don't want to put him through anything more. I am also not sure wether or not it would help to decorate the tank.
I can't get him to eat either. He looks so sad sitting at the bottom of the tank...any advice on how to get him to eat something.
Also is it normal to see the inside of their mouth move when they breath or is Capt. really hurting?

Start by reading the GSP article in our Library. There are also feeding articles in our Library.

Get some Bio-Spira ASAP, to instant cycle the tank. In the meantime, do daily 80% water changes & dechlorinate with Prime.

Pufferpunk, I have a couple of questions in regards to this thread so far.

Why not RO water for FW tanks, just out of pure curiosity. Is is just more cost effective, or are there other reasons? And as far as bio spira, or the new Dr Tims Aquatics product, which I was told is comparable, how effective is that for cycling a tank? I have heard conflicting things about the products. Some say it cycles the tank instantly, others say it just cuts down the cycle time significantly, but still requires a few weeks, and others say it just does not work. I have even been told by a LFS employee that bio spira is ineffective if levels of ammonia is present when it is introduced, it just kills the bacteria. With all these different pieces of information, its kind of hard to figure things out sometimes. Oh, and as far as water treatment goes, how do different products stack up against each other, ie, prime, aquasafe and stress coat in particular? Thanks!

RO water is actually dangerous for FW tanks. I had no buffering capacity, so fish wastes will rapidly acidify it, and anything that dissolves into the water that hardens it will correspondingly rapidly raise the PH. Either of these could cause rapid deadly PH swings. Additionally, trace minerals and trace salts which are present in regular tap water and are useful to fish are absent in RO water. Unless your local water quality is useless garbage, it is also a waste of money, though.
Prime - good chlorine and chloramine treatment. Also detoxifies nitrites in a cycling aquarium. Good stuff.
Aquasafe and stress coat - they treat for chlorine, but stress coat does not actually detoxify ammonia in chloramines, just unbinds the chloramine bond so the biofilter can take care of it the ammonia. Aquasafe actualy does neutralize the ammonia as well. I won't use either because they have slime coat enhancers in them, and I dislike treating for things my fish don't need. They also add organic slime to the tank, which rots eventually, especially the aloe in the stress coat. The aloe also gunks up carbon, purigen, and other resins.
http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/rev-cond.htm
here is more detailed information on the most common conditioners.

Do you have any other running tanks? If so you can use there filter media to cycle the 10 gallon.
BTW I love his name

Yes I do have another tank and I did use the tip about putting their water in the tank.
He fought for a good 48 hours, but was just in too poor of condition. He died sometime last night.
May he rest in peace,
RIP Captain Nemo Alexander Charles III

As far as Bio-Spira, if kept cold from manufacturing to your tank, it is an excellent source of nitrifying bacteria & I have used it 3x to fix a crashed system, so the presence of small amounts of ammonia will not harm it (I did 80% WC before adding). There is NO OTHER product that contains live bacteria. Just the fact that a product says it "cuts down cycle time", means it's just bunk--probably just dead bacteria. It's Bio-Spira or nothing else & it has to be from a reputable source.

Pufferpunk wrote:As far as Bio-Spira, if kept cold from manufacturing to your tank, it is an excellent source of nitrifying bacteria & I have used it 3x to fix a crashed system, so the presence of small amounts of ammonia will not harm it (I did 80% WC before adding). There is NO OTHER product that contains live bacteria. Just the fact that a product says it "cuts down cycle time", means it's just bunk--probably just dead bacteria. It's Bio-Spira or nothing else & it has to be from a reputable source.

Just for the record, the UK doesn't really have access to Bio-Spira (I'm sure it could be imported, but still....). Our equivalent is something called Bactinettes, produced by a German company called Söll. As with Bio-Spira, it only works if kept continually refridgerated until use, and it's relatively new in this country. Available from many lfs, particularly Maidenhead Aquatics. I'm not aware of any other proper live bacteria product in the UK.

Just wanted to mention this for the UK people

Sorry, I didn't look to see you were from the UK.

mynewlittlepuffer wrote:Yes I do have another tank and I did use the tip about putting their water in the tank.

Just so you know, water barely has ant bacteria, the bacteria all lives on the decor, substrate, and filter media. So next time use some of that stuff.

So sorry about your loss! Puffers are very hard fish to save, especially when they are that bad.