The Puffer Forum

I purchase my puffers at 2 separate stores about 2 days apart. This was about 3 weeks ago.
I was told that they can be kept in freshwater while they are still young. They are presently kept in a freshwater, 20 gallon tank with 4 plants, a rainbow shark, 2 black kuhli loaches, a butterfly pleco and a bulldog pleco. PH level is 7.2 and the tank is set at 80 F. I feed the puffers tiny snails, ghost shrimp, slices of clam and brine shrimp: they eat well and show great appetite.

Unfortunately over the past week, I've detected Ick spots on the smallest of the 2 and am currently treating the tank with Ick medication. I went through 3 first treatments at half dosage (since the puffers are scaleless) over 24 hours each and did a water change and am starting the process again because there are a few spots left on the two puffers now.

I'm worried because they have been displaying abnormal behaviour. A few times throughout the day, they would lose their color and spots and go greyish. And I've seen both of them, on different occasion, curl up their tail into their bodies and try to swim in a ball. This happens rarely, but i find this alarming. One of them also started swimming up and down the side glass panel frantically for hours on end...

Is this a result of medicated treatment? Or is it time i place them in a larger brackish water tank?
Or is this just a result of stress?

Please help my fish
thank you

Lanny

What kind of puffers? How was the tank cycled? Water prameters?

Puffers curl their tails up when they sleep. Mickey tends to go very dark, too... and swimming up and down the sides can indicate boredom...

What are the levels in your water?
How large are the puffers?[/i]

Read the artiicle in this forum about treating puffers w/ick & give us your water parameters & type of puffers you have please.

They are spotted puffers.

Last measurements:
Ammonia level NH3 = 0.10
Nitrate NO3 = 20
Nitrite NO2 = 0.10

My husband and I are new to the whole aquarium thing...

We ran the tank for a couple of weeks prior to getting the fish with a biological filter. But we had to remove it due to the ick treatments, leaving just the sponge in the filter.

I'm so sorry everyone... I don't know how I managed to do that!

...Your ammonia and Nitrite are high.. how often do you water change?

Our puffers are about 1 in and 1.25 in from head to tip of tail.

Water change every week.

I think we're overfeeding everybody...

You're tank isn't cycled. Do you have access to Bio-Spira?

Puffers, especially, will have difficulty if put into a tank that is not cycled. That is your present problem.

Your future problems will involve the puffers eating all the tank mates. If your puffers survive, and you enjoy your other fish, you should move them right away.

20 gallons is not at all large enough for the 2 puffers, let alone the other inhabitants you have in there.

Minimally, you need 60 gallons for your puffers...and GSP's, as they age, need more and more salt in their water - adults can be put in SW tanks.

Puffers are not good beginner fishes. Perhaps you can return them...till you are better prepared to accomodate them.

The one thing that I found very interesting is that the two GSP are getting along perfectly fine w/ each other and their tank mates.
They are like cute-looking, curious little puppies.
However, they are being pick on by the shark.
The shark chased them off everytime they try to swim low into the shark's domain.
This is definitely stressful for our puffers right?

Yes, puffers can stress easily & stop eating. Please if you can, set up a seperate 30g tank for them (for now)--a 55+ gallpn should be your goal. Read the info about them in our Library.

Rather than move them from the overcrowded 20 that is causing problems for them right now, to a 30 for a short time, and then to a 55, I'd recommend that you go directly to the 55 and skip the 30, if you can afford it.

Lisa, what is Bio Spira?

and how can you tell just by looking at the water levels that our tank is not cycled?

when we first started, our levels were much higher and now they've lowered... that's not part of a cycle?

Bio-Spira is a live nitrifying bacteria, used to cycle/start an aquarium. It can instantly cycle a tank, or fix a tank that's biological bed has crashed. A cycled tank will show no ammonia or nitrites at all.

See: http://fishstoretn.com/bio_spira.html