The Puffer Forum

I found this fish in a LFS, (Superpetz in Frederick, MD -- TERRIBLE fish!) and I couldn't help but rescue him. He has a nipped up tail fin, and isn't that big of an eater (never was). He's currently in my quarantine tank (3 gal -- I know, small, but he couldn't go into my other tank for fear of parasites, so I'm picking up a much larger tank tomorrow). I do water changes religiously.
pH: 7.5
NO2: 0
NO3: 0
Ammonia: 0
Temp: 77*F
Sal: 1.015
He really won't eat much of anything. I've tried giving him shrimp, but he'll take a little nibble, then swim away. I then tried blood worms and he ate it then spit it back out. He did that twice before giving up. He's the only one in there right now. I just have regular marine salt (the one in the silver bag), and I've been doing 50% water changes every day since getting the little fella. I've got sand as a substrate, which I prepped with the stocking method. It's been cycled for about 3 months now, and I used some ornaments and gravel from my neighbor's aquarium and ammonia.
I'm not sure if this is helpful, but when he was stressed (being brought home from the fish store) he was bright green, but now since going into the aquarium, he's turned a brownish green. Now, the theme of the tank is a brownish green, so I'm not sure if it's just camouflage or not. His stomach is white. When he breathes, there's something coming out of his mouth. Also, there is a little white "string" thing coming from under one of his fins. He's been laying on the bottom of the tank, and will only really move when you go up and either stare at him, or put your hand against the tank, but then at times he'll be active and swim all around the aquarium. He's a little bugger (about an inch long), so I'm worried for him.

I finally got a hold of a camera.


He'll just lay there like that for a good amount of time.

You can see where he's basically gotten his tail chopped off. I hate bad fish stores.

Congrats, you have a green spotted puffer , go to one of our members site at http://www.greenspottedpuffer.net

pufferfreak wrote:Congrats, you have a green spotted puffer, go to one of our members site at http://www.greenspottedpuffer.net

He is most likely stessed. What size is the tank?

Currently it's a 3 gal (it's basically my quarantine tank). As it says in my post, I'll be getting a much larger tank for him tomorrow, however, I'm scared to put him into this tank if he has some sort of parasite that could infect the entire tank. He's currently with no other tank mates.

I would get a 30 gallon as that is their minimum tank size, but if your planning on having other fish go with a 40. Just to let you know they require full marine when they grow up.

I would keep him in the QT tank for now and wait for him to get better while you are cycling the other tank.

pufferfreak wrote:I would get a 30 gallon as that is their minimum tank size, but if your planning on having other fish go with a 40. Just to let you know they require full marine when they grow up.

I would keep him in the QT tank for now and wait for him to get better while you are cycling the other tank.

He's staying by himself for now (limited budget), plus, knowing my luck, I'd buy a $300 fish, and Puffy would eat him in about 30 seconds.
I know they require full marine. My salinity right now is at 1.015.

Is that what he was in? If he was in freshwater i would keep him in that. How did you add him to the SW.

pufferfreak wrote:Is that what he was in? If he was in freshwater i would keep him in that. How did you add him to the SW.

He was in brackish at the store.

Oh okay. Be sure to check that link though and the article about them in our pufferpedia,

The GSP article is in our Library.

Poor fella. He looks very stressed. He looks like he may have IP's. How quick does his belly sink in after feeding? How much are you feeding and what are you feeding? Is the tank cycled?

Here is the article on IP's: library/hospital/internal-parasites-pre ... treatment/

If you suspect IP treat ASAP.

StormySkiez wrote:Poor fella. He looks very stressed. He looks like he may have IP's. How quick does his belly sink in after feeding? How much are you feeding and what are you feeding? Is the tank cycled?

His belly barely rounds at all. He won't eat much.

Not good. What are you feeding him? My puffers love raw frozen defrosted shrimp in clean tank water from the grocery store. You have got to get him to eat and looks like treat him for IP's. Keep his water very clean to help heal the fins.

I've been trying shrimp and blood worms. He'll nibble at the shrimp, and he'll slurp up the blood worms and then spit them out afterwards. His teeth are looking normal, so I know that's the problem. I'm going to get a parasite treatment today, and I've been doing 50% water changes every day.

Let us know what kind of meds you get him. I would do the baths per the IP article since he is really not eating. I'm sorry I have no idea where to get the meds listed in the article. Calling around to find them would be your best bet or order overnight online. I wish your puffer well.