The Puffer Forum

Hey all.
Just thought i'd post because im not sure if this is normal.
My gsp's are all very happy swimming around, theres no pacing of the tank and they are all eating great. But... they all seem pretty dark in colour. They all have white bellys, but their colour on top in general seems weird to me. Like, they all have a small vibrant green patch on their back (the colour i imagine they should be) and the rest of the spotted area is just kinda dark. One of them has more of the vibrant patch and one only has a very small patch and rest is dark.
Now, is this caused by the fact that i have dark sand and gravel in the tank and they are just camouflaging with the colour, or is it because of water parameters. I cant remember what colour they were when i bought them. I bought them from afreshwater tank and im sure they were more colourful then. Im guessing they may brighten up once ive sorted out the water quality. Is this usual in gsps?

1) Your water parameters - Ammonia 0.25, Nitrite 0.25 (havent tested nitrates). SG is at 0.004 and raising by 0.002 each week. Currently doing daily 10% water changes due to ammonia and nitrite and plan to get some more Bactinettes as wasnt given the right amount by lfs lady.

2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. - 58 Gallon tank. 4 GSP's. All about 1 inch. or 1.25 inch inc tail. Plan on upgrading as they get over 2 inches. (or rehoming 2 of them as lfs gave me wrong info)

3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank: feed once per day. Usually bloodworm or mussels. Get snails occassionally, daphnia and shrimp. Dechlorinate water with every water change.

4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference. - none

5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? - cycled with Bactinettes (uk version of biospira, although lfs lady didnt give me enough for tank size). Been set up a couple of weeks.

it's your ammonia and nitrite readings that are going to be stressing your fish, although white bellies is a good sign and GSP's normally do have one brighter spot on their heads and are generally darker green across the top of their bodies...

BUT.. ammonia and nitrite readings of any sort are very bad for puffers, so do a 25% daily water change until you have 0 readings for both ammonia/nitrites...

You have puffers in an uncycled tank, you are just lucky its a big tank or you'd be in alot of trouble right now...

Keep up LARGE daily water changes until your tank is fully cycled and you have a steady nitrate reading.


does the stuff you cycled the tank with have LIVE bacteria in it? If not it is completely useless.. and has not cycled the tank, merely added ammonia...

Hi, thanks for the response. i did think as much regarding the parameters. But wondered if its normal anyhow.

The stuff i used is live bacteria.. they keep it in the fridges. but i asked the lady in lfs how many bottles i needed and she said one. It wasnt until i got home that i read the bottle and it said one bottle per 100L. Its a 220L tank so i needed more than one bottle! So i need to go back tomorrow and start over.

I will start doing MUCH larger water changes. As you say that ammonia and nitrites are much too high and will be stressing poor puffers out. Hopefully the colours will come up nice and bright once the water is in good condition!

Does gsp colour vary from puffer to puffer? Most of the healthy ones i see in the lfs seem really vibrant. Although larger ones ive seen in freshwater are very dark.

My larger GSP is kind of like that - he's always got a bright area on the top of his head, but often the rest of him is more an olive color. Other times, he's much brighter, almost yellow. His belly is always nice and white, though, and he's definitely a happy puffer, judging from the way he acts, so go figure. I guess they're just moody. When I first got him, he was in freshwater and was dark, but once he got into his new, larger, and saltier home he almost started glowing. His color overall improves with every rise in salinity, so maybe that will happen with yours, too.

My bet is on the dark substrate.

PP dont say that! It'll take me ages to change it if i want bring fishies!

Ok, I didn't say that.