New GSP Not Eating, Pacing Glass

[limepuffer]

Hello! Hoping you can help me-- I'm new to puffers and just bought my first one yesterday.

Hes a Green Spotted Puffer (about 2") purchased from a fresh water tank, who I've named the Admiral. I plan on acclimating him in a couple weeks to more brackish conditions, but thought the Admiral should have some time to get used to his new surroundings while they are more similar to the old ones.

He's got a round belly with some black, and was the biggest fish in the tank. Since I put him in his new home he's been pacing the glass frantically, and chews up then spits out the freeze-dried krill I feed him.

So I went to the store and bought him some mystery snails and ghost shrimp.

The admiral picked at the snail shell, chased the ghost shrimp, then went back to pacing the glass.

Hopefully hes not bored-- The tank is packed with plants, a large piece of drift wood and a granite rock. Lots of hiding places.

Am I just overly concerned? Is he simply adjusting to his new home?

Anything you can sugeest trying to make him feel happier?

Look forward to hearing from you!

Other details:

Temp: 79-80 degrees farenheit

ammonia = 0 ppm

kh= 4 degrees

[SammyDee]

What are your other water perimeters such as nitrate, nitrite, PH etc. How old is the the tank, you cant tell if it was properly cycled without knowing all of you water perimeters. my puffs dont care to much for dried krill either too. Are there any other inhabitants in the tank with Admiral? How many gallon tank is it, one GSP requires 30 gallons alone. Its hopefully that admirals just getting used to his new home too, mine did it for a few days when I got him.

[limepuffer]

Thanks for the reply! He's in a 9 gallon acrylic tank right now. As he gets bigger I'll step him up. No other inhabitants right now because of the size of the tank and the GSPs "confontational" nature. The tank finished (fishless) cycling 2 days ago when ammonia was 0, nitrites were 2 ppm and nitrates were 8 ppm. A ~90% water change later and ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates are all undetectble. The water here is pretty alkaline at about 7.6. Any other ideas for things I could try feeding him? Was thinking I could pick up some shrimp at the store and cut it up? Is there any kind of store bought dry food he might like?? Thanks again!

[SammyDee]

Yeah you can try only fresh seafood/shellfish with shell-on from your grocery store as if its cooked stuff there is no nutrition in it when cooked. I havent fed mine stuff like that yet till mine get bigger but mine love to eat FD bloodworms, lots of snails in fact im breeding to save trips to the LFS just saw babys all over today, live brine shrimp, ghost shrimp (gut loaded-w/algae wafers), frozen krill, occasional dried krill but no mare after as I heard it may have side-affects causing lockjaw in some puffs and recently frozen mysis shrimp which they love and are very nutritional. but mainly he is hating the 9gal tank I had mine in 20g and never stopped pacing till I put him in a 55g, which he still does occasionally but not for hours or all day. but i am having issue aswell too.

[LilGreenPuffer]

2" is actually too big for your tank. He needs an upgrade now.

Watch carefully for nitrites. You didn't actually finish the cycle. They were supposed to go away on their own.

The pacing is either the result of boredom from lack of decor (sounds unlikely) or nervousness from the new home. The not eating is probably because he's too nervous. Give him some time to settle in.

[marksrush]

First of all, welcome to the forum! It's always nice to add a member to the Puffer Church!

GSPs often pace when introduced into a new tank, so that's not a worry in and of itself. In the wild, many puffers are constantly on the move, looking for food, so it's in their nature to swim constantly. Being in too small of an enclosure frustrates this instinct, hence the pacing. In time, though, it goes away and they turn into lazy little things that spend most of their day sleeping in their favorite hiding spot.

Black on a GSP anywhere except for its spots is almost never a good sign. It denotes stress.

You mention that you'll upgrade the Admiral's tank once he grows. The problem is that he won't grow if he doesn't get into a big enough tank. However, since they grow so slowly, if you work on getting a new, larger tank ASAP, he'll likely be OK. But don't delay! Check out craigslist - you can find some killer deals that way. While the minimum suggested tank size for a GSP is 30 gallons, I'd shoot for a 55: they're really common and it'll be all the room he'll ever need. Also, the bigger the tank, the less often you'll have to do water changes...and once you get well into brackish (and then full marine), you'll save money on marine salt, which ain't cheap.

As LilGreenPuffer suggests, it's highly likely your tank has not completed the cycling process. If it had, you would have no nitrites at all. Keep in mind that both ammonia and nitrites are very, very toxic to fish in general, let alone such sensitive fish as puffers. Can you tell us more about how you cycled the tank? You said you did it fishless; I'm wondering how long ago it was when you started it.

Now for the eating part. Some puffers eat right off, like little maniacs who have never seen a morsel of food in their life. Some take a while to settle in and get comfortable. The fact that he's mouthing the krill and chasing the ghost shrimp is a good sign. Feeding krill in small amounts is fine, but I'd go with frozen, myself - although other people have really good luck with freeze dried foods. Other than that, there is an excellent feeding article in the Library, so have a look at it. My puffers get black mussels, clams, oysters, shrimp, snails (pond and ramshorn), blood worms, mysis shrimp, gut-loaded ghost shrimp and crayfish when available, and seaweed strips. Crab would be nice, but if I could afford crab, I'd be the one eating it, not my fish! All those I mentioned I buy fresh or live (never cooked!) then freeze for a week to kill parasites that might be in them. If you buy from your LFS, make sure whatever frozen prepared fish food you buy is fortified, especially if you choose to offer him brine shrimp. They're pretty much like potato chips for fish: calories but no nutrition, unless they're fortified. Hikari makes good foods, so maybe look for that brand.

See what you got yourself into, buying a puffer? It's worth all the effort, though, because if you can keep a puffer alive for its whole normal lifespan, you get the satisfaction of knowing you've managed to successfully keep one of the hardest of all fish in the trade. Not to mention you get a little buddy that will love you forever.

[limepuffer]

Thank you so much for the great responses!

The Admiral has been getting progessively more comfortable in his new tank, I think. He has stopped pacing as much and the greyish/black on the sides of his belly are being faded to creme. whew.

He also is facinated with the ghost shrimp (which he still can't catch) and the snails (whose shells he cannot break). He does get startled when I walk into the room-- and tries to "escape" out of the other side of the tank. Hopefully when he starts eating he will associate the ominous figure outside his home with "feeding time" and be less frightened.

As for the cycling, I started it on Sept 13th with biological substrate, a sponge filter from my lfs, 10% "pure" ammonia hydroxide from Ace (no perfumes/dyes/etc), and some plants which I wanted to get started and read could help the process.

I started with 5 ppm of ammonia which didn't budge for 3 days-- but on the 4th day it was down to 3 ppm, and nitrates finally made a showing at 0.5ppm. Ammonia was metabolized very quickly from that point, and the nitrates "peaked" at about 5 ppm on day 6. Cut ammonia to 2-3ppm added everyday.

After the 10th day, the ammonia was gone within hours. At that point I kept adding the same amount of ammonia everyday with no drop in nitrites---2 ppm. One day I added 4 ppm of ammonia thinking there would be a subsequent spike in nitrites, but the next day it was still the same: back to 0 ammonia 2 ppm nitrites. hmmm. the bacteria must be there and metabolizing nitrites...but why no drop?

So I read (another) detailed article on fishless cycle online which made sense to me-- if you keep adding ammonia, and nirtite-metabolizing bacteria are not as quick or prolific as ammonia-metabolizing bacteria--you will end up with a persistently higher amount of nitrites. These nitrites will be metabolized reasonably quickly if you cease the addition of ammonia-- but then you risk starving your happy ammonia-eaters.

The article suggested checking the nitrates, and calling the cycle complete when you have a decent amount of nitrates. I believe it suggested 8-9 ppm, so I bought the kit and low and behold-- 8 ppm+. Thats why I didn't wait for the nitrites to be depleted.

That said, after reading your responses, I am checking the ammonia, nitrites and nitrates everyday since I really, really, really don't want him to be stressed!

Other than that, I'm going to the grocery store today-- this little man is going to ge eating better than me! I can already see what a wonderful fish the Admiral is, and I'm so glad to have found this forum full of people who know what they are doing!

[LilGreenPuffer]

8-9ppm is not a lot of nitrates.

Your nitrite-eating colony needs to be completely established, as big as your ammonia-eating colony.

[Pufferpunk]

I agree. At adding only 2-3ppm ammonia, the nitrite should be 0 if the tank was cycled.

[limepuffer]

Present conditions (day 3 for the Admiral):

pH 7.6+
Ammonia 0 ppm
Nitrites 0 ppm
Nitrates 5 ppm