The Puffer Forum

Good morning.

I believe I have a sick puffer. It is exhibiting the following symptoms:
-Generally sluggish: resting in the center of the tank on the gravel. He appears to be "panting" with his lateral fins clamped. Right now it looks like just one of the two gills on each side is moving.
-swimming up along the surface of the water, rubbing his head against the water surface
-squeezing between the heater and the tank glass.
-stringy red feces (just now noticing)

He does not show the above symptoms all of the time and has been eating well. But he's definitely acting differently than the others and differently than his former self.

He is kept in a 10 gal tank with three other puffers, who all appear happy and healthy. I have had them all for 2 months. There are no other fish in the tank. The tank has light colored gravel, some plastic plants, and some decor (a little mountain to swim in and out of.)

All the fish are fed an alternating diet of frozen bloodworms and frozen spirulina brine shrimp ("bio-encapsulated with multi-vitamins). They have twice been given a live meal of tiny clear shrimp. Interestingly, the problems with the fish began when I started to feed them the frozen brine shrimp and live meals.

The tank water is changed 25% roughly every two weeks.

The tank conditions are as follows:
pH: 7.5
ammonia: .3
temp: 26C
specific gravity: 1.004

The fish are young, the biggest is maybe 5-6 cm long.

I am a very novice aquarium keeper, so any help would be appreciated!

I'm a novice myself, but your ammonia seems pretty high. I'd do a water change right away. How old is the tank?

welcome, & sorry your first post is due to problems
any ammonia is way too high
water changes are critical right now!
do you have a de-chlorinator for the replacement water? what kind?
what kind of puffers do you have there?

OK, I'll do a water change right away. Is it weird, though, that the other puffers seem just fine? The ammonia is the likely culprit though as I have put the sick puffer in a clean hospital tank with just some sea salt for salinity and he's perked right up.

I don't have a de-chlorinator. The tank is two months old. I have green spotted puffers

Ahhh!
I read the test kit wrong. The color chart says .3 but I have to line it up with the pH to get the ammonia reading. So...the actual ammonia level is fine, close to zero. I will still do a water change, but what might be going on with the puffer?

Have you checked nitrites and nitrates? Are you using test strips or liquid kits? Test strips are unreliable. I think you most likely have an ammonia issue - he's displaying the right symptoms. Do about a 90% water change ASAP.

How long ago and how fast did you raise the salinity? How did you cycle the tank?

Please read these articles:
library/puffers-in-focus/an-introductio ... d-puffers/
library/water-filtration/emergencycycle/
library/feeding/feeding-your-puffers/
library/hospital/internal-parasites-pre ... treatment/

and for your water changes, use a de-chlorinator, preferably "Prime", made by Seachem

WOAH! Didn't even see that! Dechlorinator is absolutely essential! Prime is great, but any brand will do just fine. This is a HUGELY important thing to buy and use.

Assuming you are on city water and not well water of course

When your fish are sick, clean water is always your #1 priority. Getting your little guy into clean, unpolluted water perked him right up, so that means your water in the tank is dirty.. either due to dissolved organics built up from overstocking/not enough water changes or ammonia/nitrites due to it not being fully cycled. Either way is harmful to the fish.

The red feces could be due to the bloodworms, but they are also a sign of a pretty nasty internal parasite.. and as GSP's are wild caught and not yet bred in captivity (for sale purposes at least, research just figured it out) nearly all of them do have internal parasites.

I would say right now, you need clean water. So water changes (with dechlorinator if you are on city "treated" water), if you haven't done any in a while do several smaller ones the first day or two, then try to do 50% every day for a week or so until your fish look a bit happier.. depending on the tank size and what you all have in there though, it may be impossible to keep the water clean enough to keep them healthy, these fish eventually require 30 gallons EACH.

1) I forgot to mention...once a week I put a half of a bacteria tab in the water for "maintenance." I'm using tabs made by AquaPharm and they recommend 1 tab per 26 gallons each week. Is this what I should be doing? The tabs say "for saltwater use," but my tank is neither marine or fresh...it's brackish!

2) Also, when cleaning the tank, are there things I shouldn't clean or should I just get the slime off of everything? I understand that maybe some things shouldn't be cleaned because they are harboring helpful bacteria...

3) I understand the idea of the nitrogen cycle, but I don't know what it means to "cycle" my tank. Is this anything specific I need to be doing in addition to regular water changes?

4) Lastly, if my puffer does have internal parasites, what can I do?

Thanks all
Dan

When I change the water and stir up the gravel, it kicks up A LOT of sediment. The sediment always settles after a few hours. I have a handheld vacuum that I use to get up the feces, etc, but it doesn't do a very good job on the fine sediment in the gravel. Should I be worried about the sediment?

Sorry that you have a poorly puffer. The advice given is correct - get that water in perfect condition - although you will have a hard time keeping it that way with 4 GSPs in a 10 gallon. (you're looking at needing a 120 gallon if they all survive!).
So, test kits, dechlorinator & water change, water change, water change! Good luck!

I'm glad you mentioned that bigfatfish because that's what I was thinking whilst reading through this post. I think keeping the 4 puffers in the 10-gallon and only doing 25% water changes "roughly" (what does that mean?) every 2 weeks is really pushing it. That's too many puffers in a tank that size, let alone the fact that the water changes aren't done enough. You need to do 50% water changes on a tank that size and weekly. I would also wonder if the salt wasn't added too quickly.
If I were you, I'd get those puffers in a bigger tank ASAP, and if you can't do that, then just like bigfatfish says, "...water change, water change, water change ...!"

I changed the water this afternoon (50%) and things are looking fine for now except one puffer has black stress lines. Should I take the puffers out for water changes? The water in the tank gets awfully dusty with sediment when I do the changes...

So it's gonna be water changes 50% each week and I'll pick up a dechlorinator. I live in a very small room in Hong Kong and these cute, but high maintenance fish were given as a gift. I can't put a bigger aquarium in here, but hopefully when I'm back in the states in the summer I can get them a bigger tank ASAP. As for the salt, I've moved from 0 to 1.004 salinity over the past two months, so I think I'm doing it gradually enough?

Can anyone answer my previous question about the sediment in the gravel. Is that normal? Should it be cleaned? How? My little vacuum only gets the big stuff. How about the slime on the corners of the tank and on the heater, etc?

Thanks so very much everyone! This forum has been the biggest help!

How deep is the gravel & was it thoroughly rinsed when you first set the tank up?