The Puffer Forum

I am new to the forum and am quite frankly in need of some help. I have a GSP that is really dark on her belly and it basically sitting on the bottom of the tank. Her BW level is 1.005 and I am slowly bringing it up to 1.010 but am unsure how long of a period I should spread it out over. I am really worried that she is going to pass and I couldn't bear that right now. Her name is Google and she is approx 2 1/2" long. Any advice anyone could offer would be greatly appreciated. I have had her for around a little over a year.

Hi Jammom and welcome to The Puffer Forum. This maybe should of been posted in the hospital forum but if you could go ahead and post all all answer to questions below it might help us to understand what is going on.

1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank.
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it?


This link may also be helpful for raising your salinity.

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=19348

Trekenk,

Thank you for the reply. I am sorry for having posted this in the wrong forum. I am new to this sort of thing and it took me several minutes to even figure out how to post.

1. I will post these parameters tomorrow. I ran out of test stripes yesterday and was not able to get the store today and get some more.
2. It is a 25 gallon tall. In the tank with her is one other GSP and one F8P. The other GSP is still really little, a half inch long? the F8P is a little bit smaller than Google. The F8P and Google have been tank mates for about 16 months. I purchased the baby GSP around four months ago. I feed them every other day. They get a mix of snails, brine shrimp, worms(rinsed and cut into small pieces) and squid.
3. I change the water once a week, around 50% each time. I use marine salt that my brother in law uses on his salt tank. I will find out what brand it is tomorrow and post that info as well.
4. I have started to add the salt to the tank slowly trying to raise the levels a little more each week.
5. The tank had been cycled when I got Google, she was my first. My brother in law gave her to me. I purchased the F8P a couple of weeks after we moved the tank to my house (he lives 12 houses down from me). I have had the tank for approx. 16 months.

Here is a pic of Google and the little GSP behind her. She was just laying on the bottom of the tank, then I tried taking pics of her for you and she started moving around. LOL.. go figure.

Thank you for the post on the water salinity. That is really helping me understand brackish water better. The problem for me was that when you look for answers on the web, there were so many I wasn't really sure which one to go by and which ones not to... I appreciate you clearing up that conundrum for me.

Do you want me to re-post this in the Hospital Forum? I will/can if you want me to.

Thanks again for helping me out.

Jamnmom

That is ok about not posting in hospital, I am sure someone will be along shortly to move it.

jamnmom wrote:
1. I will post these parameters tomorrow. I ran out of test stripes yesterday and was not able to get the store today and get some more.

The liquid test kits are much more accurate than the stripes.

jamnmom wrote:2. It is a 25 gallon tall. In the tank with her is one other GSP and one F8P.

Not a good combination you have there of GSP and F8P they need a different salinity each to thrive. Minimune tank size for your GSP alone is 30 gallons here are two links to read up on.

library/puffers-in-focus/an-introductio ... d-puffers/

library/puffers-in-focus/fig8/


You are right to be concerned about the dark belly and off colour as it can but not all the time mean stress. Without the parameters it is hard to tell. You are going to have to start making some future plans for those two with separate tanks for healthy long lives. Lets see if we can get some answers first after posting the water parameters.

P.S I just noticed you have two GSP's and a F8 in that 25 gallon. Sorry to say you are way overstocked and for right now should be doing water changes every day but we will see what those test show. You really are going to need to move those GSP to a 60 gallon sooner that later.

I will get the liquid test kit tomorrow and post the findings. I have another tank that I can transfer the F8P to, what size tank would it need?

So, the rule for GSP is 30-35g per puffer? AM i understanding that correctly? I just want to make sure I get the right size tank for them. I really want them to be healthy and happy for a long time. I love the puffers because they have such great personalities.

My older GSP has been like for a few weeks now. At first I thought maybe she was just irritated, but she wasn't changing back to her normal self and I wasn't finding any helpful information except more frequent water changes. Also, her teeth are getting long and I don't know how to help her fix it. I give her snails every other feeding but it doesn't seem to be helping much and the other puffers teeth are starting to grow longer as well.

Thank you again for all your help.

Jamnmom

Ok 15 gallon for the one F8. 30 min. for a single GSP so your going to need 60 gallons or more is always better.
As far as the over grown teeth are concerned you are correct in feeding snails, clams on the half shell frozen and raw available from your local grocery store are also good. If they are still able to eat this is not a emergency but you may have to trim there beaks soon. Lets see if I can find a link to that. First things first lets get those test results.

Trimming teeth link ( lets not worry about this if they are still eating, for now anyways).

library/hospital/dentistry/

Wow I just enlarged that picture and your big guy is certainly ready for a trim...... is he/she still eating?

Feeding your Puffer link.

library/feeding/feeding-your-puffers/

Google still eats just not as much as she used to, which was another reason I am so worried. When feeding the clams on a half shell, do I just drop the whole half shell in? I haven't done that before.

Looks like she can't even close her mouth at this point. DId you read the teeth trimming link? Crunchy foods will not help over grown teeth they will help to stop teeth from getting to that point. Which means if the teeth are over grown now your going to have to do some trimming, crunchy foods aren't going to help. Also looks like just the one side is over grown? Lets get those numbers and see if we can get her feeling a little better but I suspect that might be part of the problem.

You can start fattening him up with blood worms for now. The teeth will need trimming eventually but that is something to worry about once he's healthy enough to undergo that process. Snails and hard shelled foods will be a necessity once the teeth get trimmed, they will not wear the teeth down from their current status.

Waiting for your water parameters, I'm guessing your tank can't handle that load. Like Trekenk said the minimum for a single GSP is 30 gallons, optimal for a singleton is 55 gallons. You can get by with two in a 55 gallon if you have plenty of hiding places and things to break up lines of sight. I can see the fins are nipped on the dark one and aggression is a factor right now. I really would suggest doing a 50% water change right now at your current SG 0f 1.005, mix water and get test kits asap....

what size tank would it need?

Please read ALL the articles referred to you. Most of your Qs are answered in there.

Trekenk,
I did read the link. Thank you for posting it for me. It has helped me understand the process better and will do that once I can get her back on the mend. You are right, when you are looking at her the tooth on the right is the one linger than it needs to be.

Dadof,

I have a 70g filter on it and everytime I have tested my water paremeters have always been right where they hsould be. Now of course I was also testing with the strips and didn't realize that there was a significant differnce between the liquid test kits and the strips. I will be getting it today on my lunch break and testing tonight when I get home from class. Unfortunately, that won't be until 10:30pm (central time). I will post the results as soon as I get them.

Thank you for all of the responses. It nice to have feedback from experienced puffer parents instead of people who have either known someone that had them or happened to read a lot about them. You guys are much apprecaited!
Have a great day!

Jamnmom

Hopefully your current parameters are fine. The other thing to remember though is that there are many contaminants that we cannot test for. The primary one is growth hormones. When you keep your puffers in a smaller than necessary tank the amount of growth hormones will build up quickly and your fish will be stunted. This will lead to increased illness and a shortened life span.

Beyond water quality, puffers are also smart, long lived, intelligent, and aggressive. This will also influence the necessary minimum tank size. Compared to other fish that you may be used to they will need larger and more complex tanks to deal with water quality, activity levels, and intelligence.

Pufferpunk,

I just wanted to let you know that I read the thread for Fish_are_friends (Giggles). I did as you suggested and read all articles posted twice and have printed them out along with other forum posts and . To follow Giggles example, I am also going to start a log book of my weekly parameters, and WC's. It's really nice to know that you, flutter, and J-P are so interactive with site members that need assistance. I am itching to go home and get my water tested. Can't until after work and class, but I did buy a liquid test kit, one fresh and one salt. I have a two cichlid tanks for the fresh, but since I am new to getting the BW set I wasn't sure if I should use the salt test or not. Hope that Giggles get it all worked out.

WIll post the water results as soon as I get home.

Jamnmom

2. It is a 25 gallon tall. In the tank with her is one other GSP and one F8P. The other GSP is still really little, a half inch long? the F8P is a little bit smaller than Google. The F8P and Google have been tank mates for about 16 months. I purchased the baby GSP around four months ago. I feed them every other day. They get a mix of snails, brine shrimp, worms(rinsed and cut into small pieces) and squid.

Misprint?