The Puffer Forum

I have two GSP in a tank together, one is about 4 inches and the other is about an inch and half.
The smaller one gets these weird looking black streaks on its belly. They appear on and off, they start on either side down by the tail and follow the line of it's body towards it's head. They vary in length, and coloration depending on the day. They also dissapear for a couple of hours or days then come back. I can not figure out what is causes this, the puffer is healthy looking, active, eats great, is always exploring the tank, there is no issue between the two puffers.

Any ideas of what this could be? I tried to take pictures this evening but they all are way too distorted by movement to see anything.

Most people call those stress lines, so he could be under stress.

But really a puffer can turn dark or light or have those lines for many reasons. They are emotional fishes sometimes, so what they are feeling can affect their color.

However, they change color most often because of stress, getting excited, aggression, while sleeping, when happy or sad, when hungry, when full or for camouflage.

Check your water parameters and make sure you have the right sized tank, if everything is good then redecorating the tank or adding my hiding spots may help. I suspect he may be getting those stress lines because he is so much smaller than the other GSP.

Please answer all the Qs above, in RED.

Mine get them when she's hunting.

I didn't post all the hospitial info as I posted this in a different place and it was move here which is fine just wasn't sure if it should have been here or in Brackish water puffers.

The tank these two are in is a 47 gallon hex, it's an old tank and is short and fat. The puffs are the only two critters in the tank. The tank has been set up for aprox 12 months, but they have only been in it for about a month, housed a few baby blue jacks before and I slowly converted it over to brackish. A = 0, nitrates = 40, nitrites = 0, Temp is at 78 - 79 degrees, brackishwater 0.012

50% water change per week and I always rearange decore, I have aged wood, an anubis plant and a couple pieces of slate in the tank on a regular basis then swap other stuff in and out.

They are feed once a day. Their diet is twice a week live crab, snail or crayfish, market shrimp once a week, other days are a mixture of PE mysis shrimp, brine shrimp with sprilina, blood worms and once in a while a trout worm.

The bigger puff is very passive towards the little one, they rub against each other and are always together. The little one is the boss and that's just the way he likes it.

I noticed the stripes on his lower belly the first day I brought him home, they don't look like an infection, bruise or anything like that, I was just wondering if anyone else had ran into this. The first time I saw them I went to the LFS where I usually buy my stuff and talked with their "fish expert" they are usually very good with the information they provide and he said it was fine just some do that.

just wanted to make sure he was okay, so I figured it would be a good idea to ask people who actually have these guys themselves.

I moved your thread here, so you could offer us all the info we need to make a guess as to how your puffers are doing. Thanks for posting all that. You really need to keep your nitrate <20. I'm not really sure there is concern with those black marks but that's enough right there to cause stress to your puffers.

What kind of substrate are you using? Do you clean that with each WC? What about the filtration? I'm surprised at a SG of 1.012, that anubis can live in there. Mine always melted even in 1.005.

Sheesh, my puffers drive me crazy with their color-changing. They are so moody!! I almost want to feed them so that I can see their colors get bright. Ive never seen them get gray bellies though like Ive heard described. Mine (Figure 8s) just get a dull greyish color (they drop their bright yellow and brown stripes) but their bellies stay white. But they do this for everything... when I change the water, they get spastic and get gray and hide, or swim. When I turn their light off, they get spastic, try to jump out of the water, and then swim up and down. When I move past the tank too fast, they hide and change color or try to jump out or... haha. I try to tread lightly with them, because Ive noticed how moody they get, plus theyre like spoiled kids! They get bored! Ive watched them get lazy and mope around rather than explore. They also hated their bubbler at first. Im waiting for them to bite through the tubing. I got a check-valve though so now I can turn down the intensity. But it doesnt take a whole lot to stress puffers out. But they have such personality.

Pufferpunk wrote:I moved your thread here, so you could offer us all the info we need to make a guess as to how your puffers are doing. Thanks for posting all that. You really need to keep your nitrate <20. I'm not really sure there is concern with those black marks but that's enough right there to cause stress to your puffers.

What kind of substrate are you using? Do you clean that with each WC? What about the filtration? I'm surprised at a SG of 1.012, that anubis can live in there. Mine always melted even in 1.005.

I have the crushed coral type substrate, I do vac it at every water change. The anubis is going down slowly I should have probably taken it out as I raised the salt. The readings were from last night and I did do a water change this morning. I was surprized also it was that high last night when I tested, I guess I had better check my paramater a little more often. My tank with figure 8's have anubis and it's doing great in .005

Thanks for the reassurances about the color changes it makes me feel lots better,

Maybe from the rotting plants?

Pufferpunk wrote:Maybe from the rotting plants?

possible cause for sure, I removed it just in case. I forgot to add that the filtration is a fluval 205.
I guess I'll just watch and wait to see how he does, and watch the water params better