The Puffer Forum

My guy, who's been loving his 10g tank for the past 2 weeks, seems to have a problem swimming now all of a sudden. It's like his tail is more buoyant and he's constantly correcting it. If he tries to swim deep, his tail just goes higher and higher until hes almost vertical so he chills at the top of the water instead. I haven't seen him eat anything for more than a few days now but he doesn't have a sunken belly and I've been dropping tiny bits of shrimp and brine shrimp in there, can't tell if he's nibbling on them though. He does have some fin rot, not sure from what though. His tank used starter bacteria from my main tank (that has no problems or issues) and he's been by himself all this time. It's been 50% water changes once a week so far too with salt added per the mixing guide.

Please answer ALL the Qs above, in RED.

1. I don't know the specifics, I'll try to grab some testing supplies tonite.

2. 10g, he's the only fish in the tank.

3. Shrimp and brine shrimp.

4. No changes, just did the weekly 50% water change yesterday though the symptoms were there before the water change.

5. His tank's been setup for a couple weeks now and was started with some water from my established tank.


I woke up to find him trapped by the water current against a plant and slightly puffed up. I freed him and now he's just been swimming around at the surface and every once in awhile trying to swim deeper but the deeper he goes, the higher his tail goes until he gives up and floats back up.

Mabie some trapped air or something with the swim bladder. I really have no clue at all though so wait till somebody else can tell you.

Hi and welcome to the forum! Sorry your puffer friend isn't feeling well.


When you used water from an established tank did you bring over any of the decor? The water in a tank actually has very little to no good bacteria and so transferring that alone didn't cycle the tank.. If possible can you move over some decor from the established tank?

Also for the testing equipment try and get the API test kit salt water test kit and not the strips! Strips can be un-accurate and give you bad readings so it's pretty much a waste of cash.

His tank's been setup for a couple weeks now and was started with some water from my established tank.

Your tank isn't cycled & he is suffering from being poisoned by his own wastes.
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Yes, decor did come over. I know how to cycle a tank and it was going great for over 2 weeks, it was only in the past day that he took a sharp turn for the worse.

He alternated from swimming just under the surface normally, to tail up when going deeper, to swimming on his side.

Sadly, I just checked on him and he was stuck to the filter intake, prodding him didn't get any reaction. He's in fishy heaven now. We've decided not to get another GSP, possibly a freshwater puffer later on but definitely not from walmart.

How can you cycle a tank without test kits?

How did people cycle fish tanks long before there were test kits?

She means, did you use liquid ammonia (because you need a test kit to check if the bacteria are neutralizing the ammonia before you put in your fish)? or did you use some instant cycle (bacteria in a bottle stuff) then dump the puffer in right away?

You can't know if a tank is cycled without test kits.

*cough* i had my (first) tank up and running for over a year before i knew i needed a test kit x.x it was a 5g, but i knew to use gravel and things from it to get the 10g started. i did the same when moving from the 10g to the 20g. (and again when i started up the 10g) but before all that, i knew not to buy a tank and set it up and just throw fish in right away. it pains me to see people buying bettas and those damn 'betta homes' at the same time.

wi_gsb wrote:How did people cycle fish tanks long before there were test kits?

We cycled with fish. Lost a lot of them too. They certainly didn't live into their upper teens-20s back then.

1. I don't know the specifics, I'll try to grab some testing supplies tonite.

Still waiting on those parameters.

The tank was cycled by seeding with both water and decor from my main tank.

Pufferpunk wrote: Still waiting on those parameters.

Being a smartass doesn't help anyone. My puffer has already passed on.

I have no need for elitism or sarcasm in what is supposed to be a fun hobby so this will be my last post on this forum.