The Puffer Forum

Hi, I m new on the forum. I'm in the Baltics.

I just bought two new fish. In the shop they where advertised as tetraodon schoutedeni. I have no clue if this is correct. Please if somebody can determine what they are.
Second I noticed very little white dots on the fish. I hope it's not a disease. I still have to decorate the tank. 37 liter. Anyone some good suggestions?
I hear a lot about brakish and fresh water. What is the best for the ones I ve got?

thanks in advance!
Griego

Small White spots are a sign of ich. You have green spotted puffers there. They require 30g each. These are best kept in marine conditions when adult. I would advise getting a much bigger tank, set up as marine with live rock and drip acclimatising them over a few hours, this will cure the ich and have them set for adult life. If kept in this tank they will end up stunted and have shortened lives. Welcome to the forum

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Hi, thank you very much for all this information! It was very interesting to read. Some new questions popped up.

The fishstores in the region i live are very amateuristic and the people don't know anything. I saw some snails in the plant tank in the shop but they refuse to sell them because they tell me that they are bad for the fish. Can that be true? Should i get them anyway and how to breed them the fastest as a food source?

I bought a lot of wood to put in ( cfr line of sight breaking) but even after a few dishwasher runs it stills gives off color. Would it be ok to put in the tank?

On the itch, i got SERA costapur against ichthyophthirius multifiliis, will it work?

Thanks on any info!

You should really aim for marine condition for the GSP that U have. Wood will not be suitable. At best when they are in low end brackish. When sg goes higher towards marine, U will need to throw them out for LR. Dun use chemical/med to treat puffers for ich. There's an excellent article in the hospital thread by RTR to treat ich.

OK, lets cure ich first. Here is a link. This method works, I had a chance to use it ones.

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griego wrote:
I bought a lot of wood to put in ( cfr line of sight breaking) but even after a few dishwasher runs it stills gives off color. Would it be ok to put in the tank?

What do you mean dishwasher ???

To cure driftwood you would boil it or bake it, dont use any soap or any of that staff.

To bad you spend $$ on that driftwood cuz it will not work in saltwater tank.

I hate to say it, but in this case if you can't get a MUCH bigger tank right away you're going to need to return the fish or adopt them out. If you'd like to keep one you can get just a 113 litre (30 gallons) (at smallest) aquarium. The fish do have ich though and they will need to be treated with the heat and salt method if you're not putting them in full marine right away.

Hi, I increased the temperature to 29°C, both of them are now spot free!!! I didn't use the salt method, I still wanted to but scared of changing the parameters to much without measuring. I went to 7 shops already and none of them sells saltwater equipement or salt. Is there a way to measure the SG without a bought meter?
I have no chance buying a bigger tank. Financially, the place in the appartement, etc... on the other hand the fish are still very small, +/- 3 cm.
The wood has been washed 3 times at 70 °C in the dishwasher, of course without any soap. This would disinfect 99% of possible bacteria and took away a lot of the dirt.
At the moment it still looses a lot of color so I will have to change the water some more. Over the next months I will try to increase salinity to reach full seawater in 12 months. (off course I will have to get some way of measuring salinity and need salt)

Anyone an idea if normal kitchen salt is suitable or do you have to buy special salt?



At the moment I'm going to add some freshwater snails, a plant and quartzsand. I ve heard puffers like sand more than gravel?

glad that you have cured ich.

You would need sea salt. Aquarium salt will not work.

To measure SG you would need Refractometer which very accurate or Hydrometer which is less accurate

the ich is not "cured", it is still infecting their gills. It is not eradicated, unless you use the heat/salt method for at least 2 weeks after the last visible spot is gone. The amount of salt added to help rid them of ich is not going to harm the system. Even raising the SG by the recommended amount (.002) to make the tank eventually BW/SW, takes about 1/2 cup of salt/5g. All we're asking you to add is a tsp/g.

Hi, thanks on the info. But it puzzles me. I have added 2 teaspoons of seasalt( 97 % NaCl) after replacing the complete gravel floor with quartzsand.( Trying to get rid of possible sunken pathogens on the bottom floor.) So not 4 as recommended but i prefer save and slow.

Polishpuff, I don't get your idea between seasalt an Aquariumsalt... But i need to learn a lot before going to complete salt water so for the moment i hope the amount of minerals is sufficient for just 2 GSP.


The fish at least seem very healthy. They attacked the snails and loved it.

Now an other question: how to measure the amount of food? They constantly look hungry...

To raise SG you cant use aquarium salt, you need to use what you called "special salt"

I agree the ich is not gone. Also regardless of current size it's irresponsible to keep those wonderful fish in such a small tank, you will slowly poison and kill them. Or stunt them causing big health issues

Ok, the itch might not be gone. But they look free of it now... I hope it stays that way.

Bringing it back to the store might look like this: fish tank as small as the one they are in now, complete fresh water, being bought by a guy who keeps them in a 2 gallon tank and kills them in the next 2 weeks... ( as i just witnessed) so I might better try to keep them in the best possible water conditions + food, if any other good ideas please let me know...

About the salt: on an other forum they explain that salt is salt, as long as there are no other
Additives it doesn't matter.

I see poisoning coming from wrong water parameters. Some people keep nanoreefs so, i guess this must be possible...