The Puffer Forum

Ammonia:0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate:<20
pH:8.2
Temp: 78 F

Small (<2") GSP in 10 gallon freshwater tank with a small (1 inch) pleco until 30 gallon cycles. I've had him for about 3 weeks now. When I first got him his tail fin had sum nips but has healed well. He also developed a very small white spot on one of his fins during the first week that has since disappeared. He has always ate well and was very active until recently. He is fed dried krill, dried baby shrimp and ocasianally a few snails (once or twice a week). Over the past 2-3 days he has developed the "stress line" in the corners of his mouth, down to his tail and a few small matching spots on his belly. The spots tend to go away then reappear through out the day.
He seems to be napping alot more at the bottom of the tank. I've also noticed that on some days he tends to clamp one of his pectoral fins for a few minutes (the one that had the white spot during the 1st week) then goes back to using it with no problems. Finally I notice that he seems to favour one of his gills over the other(if that's possible). The one on his right side seems to do all of the work with the left one I have only seen expand to the same size when he feeds and spits out pieces of food.

I did a 20-30% water change yesterday and he still showed the same symptoms as before but tonight, while writing this post I turned on his light and woke him up and took some pictures. He was dark and curled up at the bottom of the tank as usual but as soon as he settled out of his "grogginess"(before I got the camera) the stress line as well as the grey spots dissappeared. I turned the light back off and a the line came back but not as dark as before????


Any ideas or advice will be greatly apreciated!

GSPs can change their colours quite dramatically, and often go dark or pale when they sleep. As for favouring gills, puffers also do this sometimes. Think of it as breathing out of your mouth and nose; you don't need to breathe out of both all the time, and most people tend to favour the nose. It's possible that he could be stressed simply from the bioload that he and the pleco are producing (plecos produce a LOT of waste, as do puffers). I'd be doing 25% water changes every 2 days and a gravel vacuum, just to keep things clean until you change tanks.

Is the 30 gallon freshwater also, or is it brackish? Ideally, he should be in brackish conditions (around a salinity of 1.008 SG). If it's almost finished cycling and is freshwater, I would transfer just your GSP when it's finished (not the pleco - might want to give it to a fish store or friend, as they can't survive brackish conditions), and then you can start to slowly raise the salinity by 0.001 - 0.002 SG per week until you get around 1.008 SG. This should reduce a lot of the stress that your GSP is likely feeling and improve his condition greatly.

If you need more information about Brackish tanks, feel free to ask. I've written many posts about it in the Brackish Puffer and Brackish Tank forums, if you wanted to read about it there.

Hey,

I think I may have a serious problem. After one of my water changes/gravel vaccums I noticed that he had been pretty lazy the past day or two. I didn't feed him yesterday and his belly is still a bit full as if he just ate. As he sat at the bottom of the tank I noticed his feces came out white and almost milky. Is he constipated? If so how can I help him!?


Need advice fast....

Possibly internal parasites. Check the article in our Library on treating that.