The Puffer Forum

Hey everyone, my GSP has recently shown some unsettling sypmtoms the past week... He usually breathes through one gill, and often his stomach is black/grey and his color faded. What's puzzling though is about everday he has times when he's like this and other times when his belly is pure white, and he's extremely happy looking. Also sometimes he swaps which gill he breaths with, i.e. sometimes he uses the right, then later/tomorrow he'll use the left one mostly... also he is eating fine, accepts all food... even steals some of the flakes I give to the hermit crabs. I went to the LFS to get my water tested today because I don't have a liquid testing kit... and can't afford one atm.. the guy there told me most likely it was the nitrite levels... so I got some stress zyme to add to the water. Anyways, to answer the red questions.
1. ph - ?, assuming basic of around 8, substrate is shells
Ammonia - .25 ppm
nitrite - 5 ppm
nitrate - 5 ppm
S.G. - 1.008-1.009
2. 30G tank with a ghost shrimp, 4 red-legged hermits, java fern.
3. Feed him one sun-dried krill per day, do a 25% water change 2X weekly. Just did one on saturday. Just added a double dose of stress zyme.
4. The tank is fairly new, and I fear it's not cycled correctly...
5. It's not been set up for more then 2 weeks. I used the substrate/decor/old filter cartridge from the old aquarium to cycle the new one.

Yep its cycling and the GSP is suffering from ammonia or nitrite poisoning. Get a bottle of Tetra Safe Start and pour the whole bottle in AFTER doing a large water change. Try to put most of the TSS in the filter.

I was gonna get Tetra safe start from the fish store, but the bottle said for freshwater aqauriums, and the guy agreed it probably wouldn't work for brackish. I'm going to do a 50% WC asap. Will stress zyme do anything?

It can mitigate some of the effects temporarily but doesnt solve the cycling problem. If you lower the salinity to 1.005 during the water change the TSS should be fine as I succesfully cycled tanks with it at that salinity.

I agree--do a 90% WC & add FW with Prime, then the TSS.

Ok, I did a 50% water change today (haven't lowered salinity yet), I'm going to pick up some TSS tomorrow, as I'm very busy with college atm. When I get it I will do a 90% WC and add TSS as you suggest... I will separate the inverts and plants, because the freshwater will kill them. Only question I have... won't the sudden drop in salinity stress my puffer out? Also, I don't have prime... but I just picked up some reverse osmosis water from my LFS and plan to use this for the 90% WC. I usually use tetra aqua safe dechlorinator. Also, how long should I wait until I start raising salinity again? How fast should I raise it?
Thanks guys, I really appreciate the help. I love GSPs and am hoping I can keep mine healthy and long lived =P.
P.S. I've recently had some algae growth, and some online research seems to point to this meaning nitrate levels are up... This is a good thing right? It means my biofilter is starting to build up?

UPDATE: Puffer looking much better after 50% WC, still only using 1 gill though, haven't fed him today and will only feed him every other day until tank is stable. He's happy and buzzing around, going to try to get TSS asap to do massive WC.

Keep doing those 50% waterchanges, you need to do them 2x a day min. An sg drop of 0.002 per week is fine for your bio filter, your fish can handle 0.002 per hour. Algae growth is irrelevant to your cycle, it will grow wherever there is excess nutrients. Lots of waterchanges are needed. What does it test at now?

Um , as stated above, I dont have my own testing kit yet because Im short on money.... had a few unexpected things to pay for. I've been keeping up with WCs and plan to do a massive one today and add TSS + drip acclimate my puffer to pure FW before I put him in. Ima be busy over the weekend, but I'll update on monday.

TSS will work at sg of 1.005 I am certain. Keep those waterchanges going until you add the tss then leave it 48 hrs after before another change. Do a huge w/c before adding the TSS straight into your filter.

I did everything I stated I was going to do over the weekend. Cosmo is looking better, I've barely seen any black belly since the massive WC + adding of TSS to the filter. He is still only breathing through one gill the majority of the time though and sometimes rubs the side with the working gill (I think... I can't remeber which side exactly, he does is quickly) violenty against decorations... Salinity is at 1.004. I haven't started raising salinity or done any water changes since I added TSS on saturday evening.

I think I just said this to someone else lol. Do a little research on gill flukes just to be on the safe side . Flashing gills on decor or gravel can be a sign that something like a fluke infestation is in the gill. I am not a fluke expert but it cant hurt to look into the possibility.