The Puffer Forum

I have a GSP who's about 2 inches long and about the diameter of a nickle (when she's not full). She has good coloring, but I've been noticing the past couple days that she seems to have like a slime on her belly. Little air bubbles would stick to it and just now I came home to find her laying at the bottom of the tank and when she saw me, she popped up a little bit and there was sand stuck to the "slime."

What does she have?

The tank parameters are fairly normal. The nitrites are a little high, but the tank has only been going about 3 weeks. I did a fish-in cycle.

I have the salinity set at ~1.010. Other tank mates are a smaller F8, an archer ~4" long and a full grown ghost shrimp that cleans the tank till it gets eaten.

In the past week the only thing I have done is clean the filter and added 2 fake plants that are from my tropical community tank, but I washed them with cold water before transfering them.

Hey Joe.
Where to begin! Nitrites in a cycled tank should be zero - I suspect yours is not cycled. What are the ammonia & nitrate readings? How big is the tank? I presume you intend to separate the F8 & GSP as they have differing water requirements. How did you clean the filter? Most importantly, we really need hard numbers for your test readings.

Ok well I just got home and she's still sitting at the bottom and her belly has started to turn a little grey.

I do plan to separate the fish, they're just small enough and similar in water conditions to not matter.

I know the nitrites should be at 0, and no the tank has not fully cycled.

Nitrate: 20ppm
Nitrite: 5ppm
Total Hardness: ~200ppm
Total chlorine: 0
Total Alkinity: 300ppm
pH: 8.0


The test strips I have don't show ammonia. The tank is a 30g long (filled 4 inches from the top). I cleaned the filter out by unplugging it, taking it off the back of the tank, taking it to the sink and washing out the filter and bottom and tube with cold water.

I just took another good look at her and she's forming lumps on her back...? Not little white dots like ich, but she looks like the hunch back of notre dame.

water changes big time
the nitrites may be burning her
have you done any water changes yet?

Yeah I was just thinking about doing a water change. About 20% or so?

would say you need more than that

and to use water conditioner

if you washed out your filter using cold water, you may have washed away your beneficial bacteria and caused a mini cycle?

have you an ammonia reading?

I might have washed away the bacteria... I was trying to get the sand dust out of it. I tried not to wash the filter too hard...

I don't have an ammonia reader. I need to get one.

I always use water conditioner tho. To get rid of the chlorine? Right?

yea a water conditioner like prime will also help remove ammonia and nitrites if you have created a spike in your water

you need to do water changes, get an ammonia test and only rinse out filter media in old tank water.

you shouldnt touch your filter again tho until you get your water params right, and your tank cycled!

it would best to get the liquid test kits
the test strips are not accurate
get at least a kit for ammonia, nitrates, and nitrates
as lesleyanndunn wrote, "Prime" seems to be the best water de-chlorinator/conditioner
be sure to use it for water changes
what's the tank size?

5pmm nitrite? I'd say 80% water change minimum.

I agree big water changes daily. Gauranteed your show 3x as much ammonia as nitrite. When you wash your filter out at the sink you destroyed the bacteria with chlorine that's in the tap water. Remember you use dechlorinator to get rid of chlorine for all water added into youR tank. Chlorine is a disenfectant. It harms the fish and destroys nitrogenous bacteria. Instead wash your filter pads in tank water while doing the wc. Do it it the water your disposing of. Then the rest of the filter can be cleaned at the sink. But it doesn't need to be spotless basically I just rinse it out. The bio rings and sponges are washed in old tank water. Then I replace with dechlorinated water. You do need to do big water changes daily untill your nitrite is 0 and ammonia is 0. And are just show some nitrate as this is the lesser toxic bateria. But even nitrate should be kept below 10-15

Oh yea about the sand sticking to them a lil bit. It's completly normal even in perfect water parameters. It happens to my gsp when he sleeps. But it just falls of after he swims a bit. Its no biggy don't worry bout that. But do them wc's and get the tank recycled.

All good info, pufers are scaleless filsh and have no gill plates thus leaving them extremely vulnerable to any toxins in the water. When you go through a cycle you are forming bacteria that breaks down ammonia from the waste of normal body function and from the waste secreted during respiration. The first stage in the chain is that it breaks down from ammonia to nitrite, then nitrite is broken down to less harmful nitrate. In a fully cycled tank, at any given time, you should be able to test the water and find 0 ammonia, 0 nitrates and anywhere from 5-20 in nitrates. (the end product of the nitrogen cycle). When any of the first two show any rise you have somehow developed a mini cycle. The things you need to do at that point are big water changes to dilute the offending nitrogen product and find why the mini cycle developed.

From what I can see from what you have posted, you have multiple causes for there to be a mini cycle. First, the tank is over stocked snd the amount of waste being produced is too much for the biofilter to handle and second, you washed away your nitrifying bacteria. The best thing you can do right now is water changes of 75-80% and while your doing that, decide which puffer you want to keep and where the archer will go. As it stands the GSP requires 30 gallons, the F8 around 15 gallons, and the archer should be in a 55 gallon tank by it's self (they grow big quickly, close to 10 inches).

The requirement for the puffers seems absurd for such small fish but these guys have a huge bioload and will overwhelm a tank that is smaller than what is stated.

Ok this is all helpful information. I've been thinking recently about selling off the fish in my tropical 55g tank and doing 2 brackish tanks. And maybe even turning the one with the GSP into a full marine, when she gets full grown...