The Puffer Forum

Well at first I thought I was overfeeding him too much. He would just kind of float around on the bottom with a puffed out belly and his tailfin was tucked into his side. Now today, I havent fed him a lot at all and I just saw him laying there rolling around with the flow of water and a puffed out belly with the tailfin tucked in. I'm not sure whats wrong with im now. My other puffer fish is perfectly fine. Does anyone know what this might be?? I greatly appreciate it
NIKKI

Before we can help you at all, you need to get us more info. Please answer the Qs above in red as best as you can.

As it says in the pink section above, please post the information requested. It's pretty much impossible to tell what's going on without knowing what's going on with your water etc.

Regarding overfeeding: how much per day and what were you feeding him? You have to be careful, since puffers will eat until it kills them. Does he look like he swallowed a marble after you feed him, or is his belly just slightly rounded? You mentioned that he now has a puffed out belly - do you mean he's puffed up, or just that he's got a full stomach? What's his feces look like? What color is his belly, and how is his color in general?

1. pH= 6.5 Ammonia= omg/l Nitrite= 0.3mg/l. I dont know what the Nitrates are and they are not in Marine water.

2. 55g. I have one pleco, lots of plants, skull ornament and a volcano airator.

3. I feed fresh water cherry shrimp, snails, sun dried baby shrimp, freeze dried blood worms, frozen brine shrimp, frozen mysis shrimp, alge waffers for my plecostomus. I add aquarium salt to it after every water change(the LFS person told me NOT to put my GSP in marine salt water since they can go either way and that they would be find in freshwater with aquarium salt so im working on what im going to do now)

4. I cleaned the tank about 3 days ago, and I clean it out at least twice a week.

5. I cycled the tank with some of the water from the LFS that i got my first puffer from. But the weird thing is that my first puffer is perfect, its the newer little one thats not doing so good. He has his spells where he lays on the ground floating with a puffed out belly than he is back to normal again.

By the way his feces is real red, maybe from the freshwater cherry shrimp or the brine shrimp

By the way marksrush...His color looks a little darker than my other puffer, and his belly is white(i check that out everytime i see him having an episode) and yea his belly sometimes looks like there are little pebbles in it its kind of lumpy but this time it wasnt it was perfectly smooth. And what i mean by puffed up is like his belly looks full, but his not actually puffing up in defense of anything...and if he is hes not doing it soo drastically because i cant tell the difference between if hes just really full or not...but like i said i didnt feed him as much today after reading an article about overfeeding them last night. I appreciate everyones advice!!! They are confusing fish because ive heard many times that they are freshwater or that they are brackish/marine water AND that they can go either way BUT live longer in brackish/marine water.... Im really confused soo be VERY direct with me and tell me what i should do, or should stop doing. and by direct i dont mean being a jerk lol "just kidding"
NIKKI

To help straighten out your confusion, please read the GSP article in our Library & also the fishless cycling article. Please get a nitrate test kit.

I sent you a PM too.

Your LFS person gave you bad information: you need to use marine salt, not aquarium salt. Most people staffing LFSs have only vague (and usually incorrect) notions about how to take care of puffers, so never take their advice or information as truth unless it matches up with what you read on ThePufferForum.

Follow PP's suggestion, and read those articles she pointed you toward. They'll tell you how salty the water needs to be for each stage of his/her growth.

ok thanx...so any suggestions you have about my little puffer...regaurding his belly and feces color?

My GSP always has red coloured faeces after eating bloodworms.

I'd say don't worry unless they're white and stringy.

Do you soak the freeze-dried bloodworms in water overnight? If not, he might have air in him. You'll need to "burp" him. I have no experience towards this but I'm sure you could find it in the Library.

Hope she gets better.

Dude.....Her pH is 6.5 not her ammonia....

Mrs Puff, you may want to think about adding some crushed coral to buffer that water. Seems awfully acidic to me...No chemicals (they make changes way to quick and can kill), just something with a calcium in it that can slowly buffer the water.

Whoops , he he, not another screw-up! Must of misread that. EDIT, EDIT, EDIT!!

Lil' Swimz$ wrote:Whoops , he he, not another screw-up! Must of misread that. EDIT, EDIT, EDIT!!

Do I remember somwone saying they'd do more reading & less posting???