The Puffer Forum

I have an about 1.5'' long GSP in a 20g tank. I recently performed a 5g water change and cleanred filter (fluval 205) and... noticed something wrong with him last night.
His sides got black and he is hardly moving his left fin (the one by the gill)... Also it seems that his eyes are getting cloudy a bit.

He usually is very active but he now is just floating around, not swimming.

I checked the water parameters and they seem okay. Nitrate was a bit high (20ish) but I can correct that easy.
Anyway, does any one know whats hurting him?

I am planning to do another 5g water change in a day and see if that helps.

What were your exact water parameters? Can you supply the answers to ALL of the red questions? Is he in brackish water? If so, what kind of salt are you using?

Do a 50% water change every week. Nitrates should stay below 20 at all times.

Water parameters:
Nitrate - 10
Nitrite - 0
pH - 7.8
Salinity - 1.005

Tank is 20g and the GSP is the only fish in there. I change water like.. every 10 days or so. I try to do it every week but miss it sometimes.
I feed him daily but skipped today. Aquarium has been set up for over a year and never had a problem like this before Oh, I use Oceanic Sea salt to make water for him. btw, is the salinity too low for him?

He is now staying near the surface, following the current most of the time... I'm getting really frustrated

When you say you cleaned your filter (Fluval 205), how did you do that? I'm hoping you didn't wipe out all of your bacteria, which would certainly cause some problems.

schismy007 wrote:When you say you cleaned your filter (Fluval 205), how did you do that? I'm hoping you didn't wipe out all of your bacteria, which would certainly cause some problems.

The only thing I replaced were the foam blocks. I kept the carbon and bio media that were already in the filter...
I will change the carbon bags when I change 25% of water tomorrow. I just added small amount of BioSpira but I doubt its the problem. I will have to see how it goes after I change water tomorrow.

Thanks for the help!

Okay, I hope you understand that I was only trying to figure out why your puffer isn't well. Do you have any Melafix? I would add a little. You don't see any signs of fungus anywhere on his body, do you? (That would call for Pimafix if so).

I hope your puffer gets back to being his normal perky-puffer self very soon!

Do you have an ammonia test?

I have foam blocks from 30 years ago. Still rinsing them...

LilGreenPuffer wrote:Do you have an ammonia test?

No I don't.... I will test it today and post here. Thanks!

Ammonia is in safe range. less than 0.02ppm.

Anyway, I've been treating him with Melafix and he seems getting better. Still inactive but at least he now is moving all the fins. Thanks for the help everyone!

The only safe range for ammonia is from zero to zero. Do a water change. You need to get rid of it.

How do you test 0.02 of ammonia? What test kit?

Oh, .02? I was reading it as .2. That's a very exacting test you have.