The Puffer Forum

Ok everyone
I have a tank with 3 green spotted puffers (tetraodon nigroviridis) (75 gallon tank, canister filtration and biowheel 400, zero nitrates, nitrites and ammonia, SG of 1.012)
I have had them for over two years, they have always been the only fish in the tank and have always been well taken care of.
I feed them adequate amounts. I feed them freeze dried bloodworms, brine shrimp, table shrimp, mussels, beef heart, zucchini, lettuce, basically everything I feed my reef tank which is very successful.

For whatever reason I can almost gorge them and two of them are SO SKINNY the next day and the other isnt far from it.
They have grown maybe a half inch in the entire time I have had them. They are between two to two and a half inches.

Is it possible they had been stunted by the wholesaler or dealer i bought them from?

Have you ever dewormed them? It is very likely that they have IP's.
Also, I would question the accuracy of your parameters. In a cycled tank, there should always be a nitrate reading. Unless perhaps you do lots of massive waterchanges, have lots of plants, and perhaps add vitamin C?

I doubt they were stunted by the wholesaler, because they are caught from the wild and seem to have a high turnover rate. If they were in captivity a long time before you bought them, then it could be possible. But GSPs tend to be slow growers anyway. I would lean more towards IPs if they are really skinny and aren't putting on any weight.

DO you have any pics of the puffers?

Some GSPs are slow growers, but yeah IPs are probable.

Brine shrimp are not very nutritious so if you feed them a lot, that may be the problem..

I also don't see many foods that have a hard shell, what do you use to trim their teeth?

What is your feeding schedule?

Here is a feeding article with some better food options than the ones you are giving...
library/feeding/feeding-your-puffers/

Pufferluv09 wrote:Have you ever dewormed them? It is very likely that they have IP's.
Also, I would question the accuracy of your parameters. In a cycled tank, there should always be a nitrate reading. Unless perhaps you do lots of massive waterchanges, have lots of plants, and perhaps add vitamin C?

I doubt they were stunted by the wholesaler, because they are caught from the wild and seem to have a high turnover rate. If they were in captivity a long time before you bought them, then it could be possible. But GSPs tend to be slow growers anyway. I would lean more towards IPs if they are really skinny and aren't putting on any weight.

No I have not, what is IP, internal parasites?
I do change my water very often, and see tanks with zero nitrates all the time. I make use of plants for nutrient exportation (sp?). I use salifert, and tetra kits not strips haha.
How can I deworm them?

As for the hard food and teeth trimming I use dry/base rock and if a piece of food blows on to it (which it does with the current) the inevitably scrape teeth on it. Once in a while I will notice that one may have long teeth, when that happens i take a tin house key and put the tip in the tank. They attack it, tooth problem solved

I kind of question the whole unquestionably saying brine shrimp is bad thing. If packaged and prepared right it can be a good part of a fishes diet, however most people look at the package and say 'oh its only 5% protein'. they do this without realizing the huge water content which is factored in there.
But no, I feed them brine shrimp once or twice a week, and feed them six days in a row and then not on the seventh day.

Thank you for all the help

Yes, IPs are internal parasites. There are products that you add to the water and/or soak the food in (there's more success with soaking the food). Jungle fizz tabs work well, and I've used Prazi Pro with success. You can find dewormers at most fish stores. Jungle fizz tabs can be found at Walmart.

I've never heard about using a key to fix teeth. Does it break their teeth?

I am interested in that Q also

What does their poop look like? That is usually the first sign. White and stringy = Internal parasites or too much mucus.
"String of pearls" is basically the same as the above.

Many ppl treat for IPs regardless.

Has this been going on for the entire 2 years? or is it a recent development?

If it has been the entire 2 years.. I have a feeling the entire tank needs to be treated. I am sure some of the higher ups will chime in, but after that long, the parasites would be multiplying.

Any Chance of a pic?

I will look into those tablets or other treatment like that
as for the key, what it does is it just breaks the hard sharp tip off, just the same as nail scissors on larger puffers. they really only bite it a few times and then stop. you cannot do it too often either because they remember.
I sometimes give them snails if I am at an LFS with a snail problem and I can pick some up, or I just take the discarded snail shells at the bottom of their tank from previous attempts and drop them in again.

Its a pretty rare problem, most of the time the baserock they nip on does the job.

As far as how long its been going on hmmmm, past couple months I have really noticed it. However there has been no new additions of anything to the tank for over a year.

Their poop seems normal, dark, about twice to three times as long as it is wide.

I am thinking of running my reef tanks old UV on the tank, what do you think?

I will let you guys know how the suppliments/medicine goes.

Well I treated them as instructed in the above link.
I fed them as usual last night and this afternoon their bellies are still pretty round, even on the one that would start to look very skinny in 12 hours.

A definite improvement .
I will step up the feeding and water changes over the next couple weeks them back down and see if they still remain chubby as they used to.

Thank you for all the help

Excellent news! Sometimes it can take more than one treatment so don't be afraid to treat again if their bellies start going down quickly again.

about the whole key thing... i find it very interesting and creative... but do u worry a bout them possibly ingesting metal shavings from the key? and my solution to the whole snail problem was to buy a 10 gallon and stocked it with plenty of flat rocks and fake plants and grabbed some ramshorn snails from my local pet store that was overrun with them. They multiply quickly so u never run out and my little chomper goes nuts for them. I light the breeder tank with a blue lcd light which maintains the illusion that its night so the snails dont hide in the substrate and r easier to hunt. I keep a beta and a small colony of guppies (which also serve as a tastey and interactive treat for my little guy) to provide plenty of waste for the snails to thrive. This method has worked wonders for me because I never have to worry about chomper being unable to maintain his teeth, but I also know im feeding him quality snails and avoiding the risk of introducing illness or parasites to my tank. Also its very low maintenance!

Hi welcome. This is a very old thread, you don't need to keep fish in your snail breeder as snails will accept almost any food.

Ryoko, Please start a thread about your GSP in the BW puffer forum.