The Puffer Forum

Hey all,

Very new to the forum so bare with me. I joined due to my GSP "Ooka" looking/acting sick.

Recently the tank Ooka has been in developed brown algae, which I treated immedietly with "Tetra Algae Control". This solved the problem along with a good tank cleaning.

Shortly after, small hair-like worms infested the tank which by reading through the forums are harmless. I started adding distilled water instead of tap when cleaning trying to rid the tank of these worms. When these worms appeard, Ooka seemed very stressed and started smimming very funny. He almost tries to swim right out of the tank!

Within the past day, Ooka puffed twice and fell to the bottom of the tank like a rock, which I thought was the end. He then bounced back, but was very reluctant to move. He stays at the bottom of the tank resting on the gravel with his fins fluttering most of the time. If he does get a chance to swim, he goes straight into the glass like he is blind. He also sometimes takes nose-dives into the gravel. Something I've never seen before. He is definitely not right, and I need to do something before it is too late for him. He has been breathing very fast. It looks as if he itches his belly at the bottom with the gravel. He also is not eating, which is VERY unusual. His eyes have a bit of a "rainbow-colored glimmer" in it which hes always had, but my girlfriend worries is unusual.

Any insight on his behavior would be very much appreciated! It's so strange how you get attached to such a small fish.

In the tank along with the few drops of Tetra Algae cleaner is:
Super Water Conditioner (Added appropriately every 7-10 days)
TLC for Freshwater Aquariums (Added appropriately every 7-10 days)
Jungle Aquarium Salt

No other fish are present.

I feed him either half of a pocket of bloodworms or krill everyday.

I will be getting a water testing kit in the morning. It was never advised by the pet store where I got everything.

My guess is that he is about 6-8 months old. I've been taking care of him since last September.

Thanks again!

Symptoms of nitrate poisoning. Tank size? Puffer size? Why distilled water? Tap water should be fine.

Worms are present because of overfeeding (cut back on that & be sure to defrost/drain all frozen foods), which can also cause a system to crashi it's biological filtration, which ends in possible nitrite poisoning.

Cut out all extra "conditioners" except dechlorinator when doing wewater changes. Must use marine salt. not aquarium salt & measure content with a hydrometer. Please search for GSP article in our Library.

God luck with him!

A rather large water change might be in order today, just to be on the safe side - probably at least 50%.

I would agree. You need to do some water changes here to get that water clean, reduce toxins and then start looking into what this fish needs for care (marine salt, at least a 30 gallon tank). Aquarium salt will not do the job.

Distilled water could be giving you trouble as it may have a completely different pH and hardness than your tap water, so that can cause crashes. You'd be better off doing frequent, large water changes with dechlorniated tap water. If you can find Amquel or Prime to use as a dechlor, they have the added benefits of detoxifying some of the nitrites and ammonia (and actually do work, unlike the claims of many other products).

If you can get your water tested and get EXACT results for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates, that will give you a better idea of how bad the situation is and what steps need to be taken.

In addition, "brown algae" is diatoms and a perfectly normal part of any tank getting established. Adding a chemical to combat it is dangerous for both your biofilter and any fish, especially puffers, who do not handle any chemicals well at all.

Thanks for your replies everyone. Unfortunately Ooka didn't make it through the night. I didn't even get a chance to get a water testing kit. I'm sure I'll grab another GSP sometime in the future.

sorry for your loss

If you do, I'd wait until you've read up on what they need first. Don't do the same thing to another one.

Well I thought the information I got at the pet store was correct. Now I know to take it with a grain of salt. Sorry for trusting someone that works with these fish everyday.

Ooka wrote:Well I thought the information I got at the pet store was correct. Now I know to take it with a grain of salt. Sorry for trusting someone that works with these fish everyday.

One would think they know better wouldn't you. Their job is to move fish not keep them healthy....

Yeah I understand that now.

Yep. They sell you the fish, the fish gets sick/dies. You come back for medication and/or more fish. They tell you a little bit about what you did wrong and how you need to buy this or that to fix it. You go home all happy. More fish die/get sick. You go back to the store, they sell you more stuff.

Clean water is 90% of keeping fish. That means don't overstock, don't over feed, do water changes and have proper filtration (for water movement, not removing wastes).

But if the stores told you that, you wouldn't buy all their products, medications and funky filtration devices.

There are some good stores out there though.. its the chain ones that are usually bad. Sometimes you'll find an independantly owned store that actually cares.

Myaj wrote:There are some good stores out there though.. its the chain ones that are usually bad. Sometimes you'll find an independantly owned store that actually cares.

I work at one where we are actually trying. I'm new, of course, so I have a lot to learn, but thanks to this site and my own growing personal experience, the owners know I'm the go-to person when it comes to puffers. They are actually setting me up with a marine tank at their expense because they want me to learn marine inside and out, which they will definitely get because I don't get into stuff halfway, I go whole hog. So that says something about their commitment.

When you get down to it, it's the only hope of LFSs that we go this route. If we're not absolutely reliable and correct in what we tell our customers, then why should they come to us instead of Petco or Petsmart? Their prices are always going to beat ours, so we have to add value by knowing what we sell, period. The trouble is a lot of owners get basically burned out and don't give a you-know-what anymore, all they want to do is make money, so yeah, they try to sell you every chemical they have on the shelves. At our store, we want to make money of course, but we want to do it the right way: we ask lots of questions before we sell you any animal, to make sure you can take care of it and provide it the environment it needs. If you don't answer correctly, you don't get the animal or fish. Since I have started working there, I have extended that same philosophy to our puffers...we may not sell as many as we would if we let one go home with every person who said, "Oh, what a cute fishy!", but I feel better when I go home at night.

Glad there are some people that make sure that new owners are taught how to take care of the animals/fish they sell.

I was in a local, privately owned store a few years back, while they had a rep from one of the companies in "training" the new hires.

The rep was actually telling them that they send in secret shoppers, and if they don't try to sell the products, their pay will be docked and it will go on their record.. to many times and they lose their job. I can't remember the company that this was, but it was a popular one and I know they were pushing perfectly worthless products that no fishkeeper that knows anything would have any use for.

So its not just the owners of the stores, its the "big companies" pushing for these kinds of sales too, even to the point of threatening employees!