The Puffer Forum

Hello, I have read through all of the rules and stickies and I could really use some help. I am VERY new to fishkeeping so I will start from the beginning. I started my tank just over 3 weeks ago. I started with a 20 gallon tank, I purchased a heater, Aquaclear filter, water treatment, gravel, 2 artificial plants and 2 rocks from my LFS. I put everything in without trouble, I also added the Water treatment (chlorine+nitrate remover and slime coat). Once I had my tank set up and my temperature was at 78 degrees I went and got some BioSpira and put that in. Once the BioSpira was in for a day and a half I went to get my fish, I loved the GSP so I got two of them.

Here are pictures of my two GSP when I brought them home.





They were both really active and happy for the first week or two. But then they started becoming more sluggish, often laying on the bottom of the tank doing nothing. One of the two experiences this a lot more than the other. I also notice when they are being sluggish their skin is a much darker. Now in the last two days the worse of the two has been permanently dark and sitting w/o eating. I had my water tested at my LFS and I had 0 ammonia but very high nitrites (sorry I dont know the number except that it is high). I started using Cycle bacteria that was reccomended to me but do you guys have any other ideas? I am getting really worried about him, here are pics of him now.





And a current pic of my other



I also forgot to mention I was feeding them live tubiflex worms once daily up until monday when I was told that feeding less would lower nitrites.

ok...first, you're going to neeed to get a 60+ gallon tank eventually for these 2. These are brackish to full saltwater fish when adults. Please read thisbefore you go any further: http://www.thepufferforum.com/articles/ ... togsp.html
The problem you are having is that your tank is not cycled. Please stop using that 'cycle' junk, it's only dead bacteria and is adding to the problem. What I would do is perform a LARGE (50+%) water change, and right after add another dose of Bio-Spira. If the B-S doesn't work, keep a close eye on the ammonia and Nitrites, doing water changes daily to keep them down.

Are you keeping them in FW or BW?

Now I dont know who to take advice from, you or the owner of my LFS. Also what kind of feeding schedule should I put them on?

Raphael wrote:Are you keeping them in FW or BW?

FW, like i said. This is my first attempt at fishkeeping ever so this is all brand new to me.

They will require BW and as they grow they will require full SW also they will need a bigger tank as lisalisa said.

will i be required to put them in saltwater? Kind of an important bit of information for the LFS to leave out. They made no mention of that to me and told me that they would only grow a little bit bigger than they already are.

I'm not so sure about when to move them to SW but now they should be in BW. They grow to 6".

I guess I will worry about the saltwater bit once I get the current situation handled, Right now I need solutions to help my poor guys. They are both getting really sick looking

About adding salt, you will need to raise the salt level slowly but I'm not sure how often you are meant to raise the amount of salt.

If your LFS knew anything about Bio-Spira, they would have told you that the fish must be added at the same time as the product, or the live bacteria in the product will die. It needs fish waste to "eat". Cycle is dead bacteria. I'd do an 80% water change & add another pack of B-S directly into your filter. Make sure the B-S has been refrigerated from the time of delivery to the LFS. I suggest purchasing your own test kit.

Im sorry I am just trying to understand the reasoning behind this, Why would I need to change 80% of the water? Why would bio spira die without fish for 36 hours, would 2 fish make enough waste to keep it alive that quickly after adding it?

Ok I got a water test kit and my Ammonia levels are below .2 but my Nitrite is a .75 I know this is the problem, how can I bring those nitrites down?

That's looking a bit better. I would perform another water change, but purchase a hrdrometer and a bag of marine salt, and salt the change water just a little (so the hydrometer measures in-tank specific gravity of 1.001.... hence, if you did a 30% water change, you would salt the change water to 1.003). This will help prevent nitrite toxicity to the fish.

For your other questions, I would refer you to the linked article suggested above. It details the recipe for success with this fish..... and is written from experience in keeping these fish. Experience, it appears, your LFS does not have.

My puffers are still FW at the moment so I dont think I can add any salt. I put the cycle in earlier today, should I just wait for that to run its course or should I work more aggressively to get the nitrites down?