The Puffer Forum

My green-spotted-puffer is small juvenile in brackish water and is the only tankmate who looks unwell/stressed/sick.

Here's the usual format:

1) water - pH = 7.8, Ammonia=0, Nitrite=0, Nitrates=10 ppm and salinity (1.005 sg). Previously had nitrates as high as 25 ppm.

2) Tank is 48g, has 2x GSP 1", 3x ceylon puffer 1.2", 3x bumblebee goby (0.75"). There were some MTS and other smaller (softer shelled) snails in the substrate but they all seem to have died when I started brackifiying this tank. There is some moss (added by me) and a small amount of dark green algae growing in the tank. Filtration is an aquaclear AC110 with sponge, biomedia, and carbon (old/inactive, just part of the biofilter now).

3) Feeding: small mystery snails (from my other tanks), bloodworms (frozen type), mysis shrimp (freeze dried), water change was irregular for a while, but last few weeks have done 20%/weekly. No additives or medicines. The sick looking puffer eats as much and gets a puffed-out tummy when he eats. He swims and is very active.

4) No recent changes. Well, when I started going brackish, I pulled all the freshwater plants out. That caused a bit of a nitrate spike, I think. There was also a piece of driftwood which grew a lot of algae (due to the nitrates I think). I thought the black on the bottom of the puffer was from him sitting on the log (which he also did a lot). I took the wood out of the water and he hasn't got any lighter on his bottom side at all. The other puffers look quite white bellied and healthy.

5) Aquarium ran for four months, cycled with old filter media (freshwater), ran and cycled with freshwater, after cycling it had the bumblebee gobies for three weeks before the puffers were added. Ran freshwater until after the puffers were added. Started going to brackish three weeks ago.


So anyways all my puffers are fine, but one is almost entirely black on his bottom side. He is quite active and eating fine, but he looks wrinklier than the others, grayer a bit on top, and almost black on the bottom.

Warren

I'd remove the driftwood and keep it out. The salt water will cause it to start to deteriorate causing lots of problems which could be why your puffer isn't doing so great. He could also be stressed from overcrowding. Do you have plans to upgrade them soon? All together those 5 puffers will need about 150 gallons.
I'd also reccomend doing 50% weekly water changes. That should help too

Agreed--the crowding is stressing your puffer.

Well I moved both GSPs to their own hospital tank. The other one had turned a little blackish on the underside too. So the consensus is that it's over-crowded? Because these guys put out a lot of waste and thus in the 48g the water quality must be sub-par? Well today I finally sprang for a Python so I don't have to do the Bucket Brigade anymore. Of course I still need lotsa buckets for my brackish water to mix in, but at least the dumping out of the BW tank is easier now. I hope to do 2x weekly water changes instead of weekly until the tank is cleaner and then I'll try again. I think I may find a foster-home for my GSPs and just keep the other guys since they seem to be a little tougher and are more likely to survive being owned by me.

W

Good move but if those other tanks aren't cycled, you're going to be doing a lot more water changes.

The sick puffer died, and the other GSP started getting darker, which made me think I've been too slow upping the salinity. The tank params are all stable on the main tank though. I raised the salinity from sub-brackish (1.005) to more like brackish (1.01) all in one go, when the other GSP started to gray out on me. He's now 100% better. Everybody in the tank seems happy. I'm watching to see if my rapid increase in salinity is going to crash the biofilter. I have a live-PH and live-Ammonia thingy in the tank, which should hopefully show something if it crashes. I also suspect that the log I had in there while I started brackifying may have started rotting and may have poisoned the tank a bit.

W

Keep a close eye on your ammonia/nitrite & do more WC accordingly. Don't just depend on the "thingy" either.

Well the 1.5" long Ceylons are picking on the remaining 0.75" GSP, and he's started acting almost as unhappy as the other one who died, so I've started brackifying one of my other tanks. I hope that the GSP can be happy on his own. Many people in my local fish web-forum say they have only had good luck with single GSPs. I hope the lil guy will be happier in his own tank.

W

He will be fine on his own. Mine is the only fish in there, and he is so personable. You are probably going to see a happier little puffer!

If possible, to stop him getting picked on faster, maybe trying to add bio-spira to the tank so he can be moved immediately.

i hope he gets better and makes it!