The Puffer Forum

1. pH =7.8, ammonia=0 Nitrite=0 Nitrate=<10 salinity=1.004
2. 45 gal w/ two small GSPs (going to get an 80 gallon soon that I will transfer one of them into).
3. Been feeding dried river shrimp and live mealworms. Weekly water changes (20 to 40%) the only thing I have added to the tank is salt... had a minicycle from that aout a month ago and nitrite rose but now the tank is re-cycled and I've been testing daily to make sure everything stays in check.

Ok I guess some of you remember I was having trouble with my three GSPs one of them was lying on the bottom with labored breathing... well i did a ton of water changes but he still died. Then the other one stopped eating. I trimmed his teeth, thinking maybe that would help, but he died about 5 hours later... And so the other one was left alone. He seemed to have a bond with the last one that died, and as soon as that one died the one I have now quit eating, and hid constantly when he wasn't swimming up and down against the glass. so I thought maybe, despite everything I have read about puffers, that maybe he was "lonely" so I bought another GSP a bit larger than him, and immediately my "lonely" gsp began swimming around happily, and actually ATE when he saw the other one eating!!!! but then after a day, he's back to hiding and swimming at the glass. and now the NEW one is swimming at the glass CONSTANTLY!!!! it is literally driving me CRAZY!!!!!!! But the new one still eats. The other one doesn't. I can't figure out what is wrong! I just did a 50% water change the other day thinking that there was SOMETHING wrong with the water. I also rearranged the rocks into a different formation. then today I did a 60% water change, once again replacing the pre mixed saltwater so that the salinity stayed the same. AND I rearranged the rocks again. I swear I am so frustrated I don't know what to do. I cannot detect ONE single thing wrong with the water. And the one who isn't eating, I trimmed his teeth too, but to no avail. the new puffer was the only thing that made him eat. PLEASE HELP ME I'M ABOUT TO PULL MY HAIR OUTTTTTT!!!!

What type of test kits are you using to check your parameters. Is the larger puffer picking on the smaller one at all, puffers can be sneaky sometimes and tend to do this when you aren't looking. Is your tank well decorated with lots of plants, rocks/caves and background? How long are you letting the pre mixed saltwater sit, are you adding your dechlorinator ( prime) every waterchange and matching the tank water temputure? Mealworm should be given only as treats maybe once a week as it is difficult for puffers to digest, and very fatty also. Here is a great feeding artical in the library library/feeding/feeding-your-puffers/

trekenk wrote:What type of test kits are you using to check your parameters. Is the larger puffer picking on the smaller one at all, puffers can be sneaky sometimes and tend to do this when you aren't looking. Is your tank well decorated with lots of plants, rocks/caves and background? How long are you letting the pre mixed saltwater sit, are you adding your dechlorinator ( prime) every waterchange and matching the tank water temputure? Mealworm should be given only as treats maybe once a week as it is difficult for puffers to digest, and very fatty also. Here is a great feeding artical in the library library/feeding/feeding-your-puffers/

I am using the quick dip test strips which test for nitrate, nitrite, hardness, pH, and total alkalinity. I use a liquid kit to test for ammonia. I have heard that the test strips are not as accurate, could this be part of my problem? I have not noticed the larger one picking on the other one. In fact just today I saw them swimming at the glass together and there seemed to be no aggression going on. And they do tend to eat together (when I can get them to eat at all) But like you said they are sneaky so I will keep my eye out. My tank is decorated only with rocks. I have lots of holey rocks for them to swim through and a big skull at the top for them to hide in. But it's all in one big formation, maybe I need to change it up? I don't have any plants in there because the salt will kill my live plants. I have lots of plastic plants though, should I put those in? I just don't really like plastic plants because they are rough and rigid and I am afraid that it will scratch the puffers sensitive skin. I have let my premixed saltwater sit for about a week in a bucket with it's own filter to keep the water moving. I don't use prime but I do use a regular dechlorinator, it's in a yellow botle... I think it's called aquasafe? Temperature is the same (within one or two degrees) and thanks for the info on the mealworm, I did not know that. I will instead just keep feeding them the dried river shrimp like I began with until I can get other things.

Can you post a picture of the tank?

Yes here are the pics... I apologize for the algae that is impeding the view but it's green spot algae and it's nearly impossible to remove.

UPDATE: small one is now swimming around with the big one and they both just ate a whole river shrimp between them. They are still swimming at the glass some, but not nearly as feverishly as they were. THe only thing that sucks is I still have no idea what's making them better! But I'm not complaining!

By the way I have an aquatech 30-60 gal filter in there (320 gph) and a tetra whisper 10-30 gallon filter. I tried to put more than adequate filtration in there because I heard puffers like a lot of water movement.

I'd add lots of tall plants across the back & sides & medium ones in the middle.

Also, rearrange the rock so there are swim-throughs for the puffer.

Yeah, lots of hidey-holes and decorations can help stop that pacing!

Ok, I will definitely try that. Also I wanted to ask, I saw my smallest puffer the other day scratching on the rocks... and then it did this weird thing where it shook and almost jumped out of the water, it shook like it was being electrocuted. Parasites? Lack of oxygen? what do you think? If it's FW parasites I'm hoping that the saltwater will eventually kill them off?

Ok I rearranged the tank... but I found that I don't really have enough rocks/decorations to reach close to the top of the water line, so it's kinda left a big gap towards the top of the tank, which is now where the big one paces at the glass. Here's pics:

Can you dig up some worms or rolly pollies? Catch grass hoppers? Make sure no pesticides have been used in the area.
Wal-mart sells red worms, they will LOVE those.
Don't worry about the plastic scratching them, they are sensitive to chemicals, but their skin is actually pretty tough.
You can gather some rock from a river or lake, wash them, bake them, and they'll be fine to use.

Yeah I can find a ton of worms out here and we don't use pesticides on anything the closest thing is neem oil I spray on my outdoor plants but I haven't used that this year yet... Actually when I was scraping up moss to make my moss bed in my other FW tank I found a bunch of worms but I put them back because I didn't have the puffers at that time. I've never heard of red worms... are they in the fish section? the closest thing I've seen at the walmart fish section are freeze dried mealworms. and I already have live mealworms so I didn't buy them. I also have a bunch of rocks that my dad collected for my fish tanks, I just haven't gotten around to washing them off and putting them in there. I'd better get started!

By the way thank you SO much to everyone for your quick and helpful replies... you guys are lifesavers!

Look in the sporting goods section for bait worms.

I think you should go out & get yourself some flat pieces of rocks to make "shelves".