The Puffer Forum

We just started with the whole puffer thing this week. I'm worried that Puffydyle may be sick. His belly has black on it on the sides... is this normal or is he sick??

Can you please answer the questions in red right above your post? Those answers along with the type of fish you have will allow us to help you

Flutter wrote:Can you please answer the questions in red right above your post? Those answers along with the type of fish you have will allow us to help you

I just started so I have no idea on my water counts, I ordered the kit suggested in the brackish puffer forum under my new GSP post. He lives ina 50 gallon with a spotted catfish, a silved dollar, a kissing goruami and a orange molly.

He came with the balck on the belly, so I may have purchased him already sick

Where the yellow blends into the white of his belly is where the black is, and the center of the belly is white. So far he's had a snail feast two days ago, yesterday just fish pellets (if his full tummy choose to eat anything after the previous feast) and there are three plant in the FW tank.

Water was changed on Monday and I try and do it once a Week. I use prime and aquarium salt.

Its been set up two years and since I have no idea what cycling is I'm pretty sure this is not something I have done...

So I might have cycled the tank when I started, I just read the thing. I bought some sort of stuff that we added to the tank 'to grow the right bacteria' per LFS and then added fish a few days later. I couldn't tell you what the stuff was other than you dumped in the entire bottle...

I doubt a tank that has been set up for that long wont be cycled...... but its allways good to have those test kits to rule out water parameters..


A pic would be good so others could help you diagnose any problems, GSP's usually come with internal parasites since they are wild caught. One way to tell if he has them is pay close attention to him belly. Does it seem lumpy and does it go down rather fast after he eats. Im assumeing you didnt quarentine him when you first got him. If he does turn out to have IP then it would be best to treat him in the 5 gallon tank you were getting for breeding snails. And try to get your hands on some earth worms at a bait shop or some raw shrimp for him to eat, i dont think those pellets are a good food for him.

Turning black is normal and they do it for many reasons..

Sometimes they are excited to see you, sometimes they do it to hid and sometimes they are stressed out..

When you see one turning black you have to rule out things that may be causing it to turn black..

Last night I had a GSP turn black underneath his eyes..which was unusual for him..

I checked water parameters, he had just had a water change the day before and he is alone in the tank...so I just kept ruling stuff out..and then I decided to move stuff around and stuck my whole hand in the tank to realize the water was ice cold! The heater was broken..

So I acclimated him to another tank, a tank he would have to share for a few days, by the time I put him in the other tank he was warmed up and the black was gone

The mentors here really can't help you rule out stuff with out more info.

But, without knowing anything..he may be upset in a new place, the water may be bad for him and he may not like his tankmates.

I picked him up some live ghost shrimp for dinner. And am getting a tank to start setting up for him tomorrow and then that'll take a couple weeks to get up and running. Then planning on moving him and slowly changing tank to BW and then to SW. I'll try and get a picture of him tonight.

keeping him in that 50 gallon if thats still what your going to do will be awesome for him tins of room.. If you decide to move him to the 75 then you can actually get another one to go in with him. but thats all up to you. They can turn darker and lighter at will so i dont want to scare you with the internal parasites thing just one thing that is very common with new gsp's. keep us updated on the new tank and your decisions.. if your starting it off at fresh water it shouldnt take a couple weeks to get it up and running unless your talking about meterials. As far as cycling the new tank just use some gravel and filter media from the tank you already have to set up the new one and it will be instant cycled. as long as your tank is cycled correctly.

So I am picking up (via Craigslist) the following tonight for $20.. which tests do I need to run on the water??

I have several salt water things for sale.
Rubber arm length glove
2 fish nets
turkey baster
polyester media filter bag
rio air pump/power head
carbonate and general hardiness test kit
nitrite test kit
nitrate test kit
ph high range test kit
phosphate/silicate control crystals
2 magnetic aquarium cleaners
red slime remover powder
timer
iv drip for acclimation
hand held refractometer

So the molly ate the ghost shrimp before Puffydyle could get them so I dug him up a couple worms which he gobbled up right away. As he ate as and saw us the black faded away. His tummy was lumpy meaning paracites. So I now need to treat the entire tank. What do I need and how do I do it??

Also which of the tests from the bunch I just picked up should I do??

read this.... library/hospital/internal-parasites-pre ... treatment/

I didnt mean to startle you on the IP thing just wanted to inform you that tons of them come with them... there's more to look for then just lumpy stomachs (since alot of foods will give them a sorta lumpy stomach) also look at the pooh... IMO i think its best anyway to goahead and treat any wild caught fish for IP. Read up on the article and look for other signs aswell. The article will give you diferent treatment methods.

Okay for my chemistry first try...

pH 8.2
No2 0.1
No3 110
KH 100 mg/L
GH Honestly I got to 300 and stopped as that put is already in the very hard group (the water was no where near turning blue...)

So after reading the booklets in the test I'm doing a 25% water change and adding pH decreaser and testing again in 24 hours to see where we are at.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

I wouldn't use any chemicals to lower the pH. Those chemicals don't work and are a waste of money. The change in pH is only temporary and the fluctuations is not good for your fish. Your fish will climatize to that pH. Mine is over 8.5 and my fish are fine. I think there's something that does lower it naturally, coral or driftwood but I can't remember what it is exactly and I could be wrong about that as well.

Do not mess with the PH..I have been told that those products do not work like you think and can cause problems...

are you saying..your nitrate is at 110? and nitrite is 0.1? or is it 1.0?

So I have Metronidazole and FOCUS but want to treat the entire tank and as they eat different foods I'd rather just add to water. Do I need to get the Levamisole Hydrochloride? Is this something I can get from a LFS, pet shop or the local sw specialty store?