The Puffer Forum

i have had him for 4 weeks now, in a ten gallon, about to move him upto 45 gallons, all my levels are right not too high. i dont see why hes all brown and hes kinds just chilling near the gravel. hes all brown not green...

Please answer the questions in red so we are better able to help you.

What are you testing your water with and what are the numbers? Please answer all the ?'s in red as flutter stated.

Goahead and do a 100% water change and i would do at least 75% everyday untill you get him in the 45. When my tank crashed and my levels went burserk thats exactly what my GSP was doing b4 he died.

Levels not too high...doesnt help much. It sound like ammonia and nitrite are showing in your tank. Both show be zero and a liltte bit of nitrate( below 20) showing. If you show numbers all around your tank is not cycled/crashed

i already went through the ammnoia spoke and nitrite spike, my nitrite has came down to 2.0 ppm and going down and my nitrates is like 10 ppm. i did throw in a skimmer just to see if it works thinks it messed with the water? all thats in the tank is 3 ghost shrimp, 1 fiddler crab and some 1 inch kinda frog.

ANY amount of nitrite is extremely toxic. Do an 80% water change right now & keep doing them daily, to keep it at 0.

The puffer will eat the frog & crab. The frog won't like any salt--it'll burn it's skin. Please find another home for it (& the crab, if you want it to live).

1. Do a 100% water change right now, and 75% every day untill you get the 45 setup which should be ASAP.
2. Find something suitable to put the fiddler crab, ghost shrimp, and frog into untill you get the GSP transfered. The reason i say this is one the frog has no reason to be with a GSP its trouble from the start, two the fiddler crab should be in something where he has a chance to get out of the water, and three you dont want the GSP to go eating all the ghost shrimp and causeing higher numbers then you already have.
3. Feed your GSP just a little every day or every other day so you dont keep adding to your parameters a nitrite level of 2.0 is deadly to a puffer.

Is this a FW tank or BW?

Didnt mean to post over you PP.

What do you mean by 100% WC? I've seen you mention that a couple of times.

When i do when i say a 100% water change i fill a suitable container with tank water enough to hold the fish then drian the tank to where there is only enough water to keep the substrait wet and change all the water then put the fish in with out putting the water from the container back into the tank.

I just had to do that yesterday to my cousins tank. She had it set up for about a year with no water changes her ph was below readable, and her nitrates was well over 200. I did that and then drip acclimated her fish back to clean water and now there not dyeing anymore to her astonishment.

The reason i say do this is because if you have a nitrite reading of 2.0 then do a 80% water change you still have a reading of .4 in the tank and that is still a very dangerous level for any fish really.

Then do 2 50% or even 2 80% WC in a day. When you tell someone to do a 100% WC, either they think they should leave the fish with no water or take him out, which is stressful for the fish.

Generally, when you have "old tank syndrome", it is suggested to do 25% WC daily for a week & then back to 50% weekly.

FW tank soon to be put on BW tank, i changed out the water now he seems a little bit better, but he like curled up into a ball with his tail wrapped up around him in a little corner close up, he kinda floated so i messed with him he started to swim and i seen a lime green spot on his because before when he was in a ball he was all brown im not suire what to do. i need to get the 45 gallon tank running but that can take upto a month just cycle.

Just keep up with the fw water changes, one or two a day using dechlorinated water. That's all you can do.

Is it eating? Not the first concern right now, it's the water - but they like small earthworms and snails as you know.

He's not in a cycled tank now anyway. Move him into the 45g tank right away! Better he be in an uncycled 45g tank than a smaller uncycled one.
library/water-filtration/emergencycycle/