The Puffer Forum

My roommate bought a GSP from Wall-mart this afternoon not knowing what he was getting into, it was the only one they had left and he looked sad :[ but now we both fear that we have made a huge mistake. we bought him with a bent tail and thought it was cute in the beginning, but now he's swimming vertically in the tank. he has a few decorations and a little cave to hide in but his take is very small we have him in a 1.5 gallon take with a filter and heater that keeps it around 78 degrees. his water is slightly salty but we dont know if its to salty or not salty enough the tag at wall mart told us to feed him tropical fish flakes but now that seems totally wrong and all we have is freeze dried blood worms, we are going to a pet store tomorrow to get him some snails or maybe just snail shells ? but the largest tank we can have here is a 10 gallon one. we realize the mistake we made and we hope we can at least give him a some what comfortable living for now until we can him all settled. so i guess my questions are. . .

Does his bent tail mean anything is the cause of his vertical swimming ?

Can we keep him in the small tank for now or will it kill him ?

And should we get him live snails or just shells ?

Can we save him or is he doomed ?

Can you ever get him in a larger tank than 10g? If not, I suggest donating him to a shop (not Walmart).

You've got lots of reading to do:
library/puffers-in-focus/an-introductio ... d-puffers/

library/category/water-filtration/

You CAN save him, very likely, but not in a 1.5 gallon tank. Nor a 10 gallon one (maybe for a few months at most).

Read up what Pufferpunk linked you to.. decide if you are up to the challenge and in the mean time, change out some of his water, 50% or so, so he has clean water in there.. try to do that at least once a day but you'll have to make a decision pretty quickly what you will be doing with him.

A bent tail is often a sign of a sick/stressed puffer (sort of a defensive curling in upon itself) or one that is napping (yes, they curl up to sleep). If its bent all the time, it could be spinal damage too.

There is a good chance he won't make it no matter what, so at the very least, keep that water clean and let him have a few days of not being in miserable, disease ridden, polluted water like he would have died in at Walmart.

If you won't be able to keep him, and he doesn't die in the next day or so, try to find a good store that will take him in. I wouldn't worry too much about salt right now, and if you can find them, he will like to eat some live snails.. but when ill, they often won't eat at all, so you'll have to see how that goes. Freeze dried bloodworms aren't very nutritious, but if he eats them, at least he's feeling good enough to eat and you can look into better foods. I wouldn't even bother with the flake food.

Another case of Wal-Mart mis-educating the customer.

Does any one know who there provider is?

I believe it is A-Pet, from the Chgo area.

I don't know who the provider is but its really terrible, even for Wall-mart! iv been reading all-over forum and this little guy should never be sold at wall-mart. but he is still alive so today we are going to try to get him some snails and do a water change.