The Puffer Forum

HEY GUYS! I have never ever had puffers before. I currently have 6 puffers in my 55 gallon tank. I have 2 figure 8 and 4 green spotted puffers. Currently the figure 8 puffers are bigger than the GSPs. My GSPs seem to keep getting sick and getting very very dark in color and after eating they just lay at the bottom of the tank breathing very very heavily. My tank is very well filtered and I have fed them feeder guppies, snails, and they LOVE crayfish. The water is brackish...I have it at a basic gravity at about 1.004! Can anyone tell me why my puffers are getting sick. I actually had two of them die within the first 2 weeks. HELP ME PLEASE!!!

They are sick because you are massively overstocked ..... and they are stressed
GSP's need a minimum of 30 Gallons each ......
Also Fig8's & GSP's are not good tank mates, GSP's will require full sw as they get older.
Have you checked out the articles in the library?

What are your other tank Parameters
ammonia, nitRIte, NitrAte
and how long has the tank been up and running

Please answer all the questions in the top thread of this forum, so we can help your puffers. Reading the articles in our Library on the species you have, is also an excellent idea.

This probably belongs in the hospital forum.

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that this is a new tank that has not been cycled with these fish just added recently.

This sounds a lot like ammonia/nitrite poisoning and probably agression stress.

Your tank has many serious problems:

1. Too many fish
2. Incompatible fish
3. Fish that should be alone

Here are some questions for you to answer for us:

1. How did you cycle the tank?
2. How long has it been up and running?
3. How long have the fish been in there?
4. How often do you change water?
5. How much water do you change?
6. What kind of salt are you using?
7. What are your water parameters (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate)
8. What kind of filtration do you have?
9. How big are the fish?

The tank was cycled well...It actually had cichlid fish living in it very healthy for about 6 months before I put the puffers in. The fish are tiny and there is pleanty of room for them right now and I have read a lot of information about Figure 8s and GSPs together and that they can get along quite well...The Nitrite, Nitrate, and Ammonia levels were all at 0 and the SG was 1.007

Try and keep the discussion limited to a single thread. You've started a new topic here: http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/vie ... highlight=

Please answer all the questions I asked in my last post above.

As I say in your other thread, your tank is massively over stocked. The fish are small now, but they will need MUCH larger accomodations and SOON.

Unless that tank is full of live plants, there should be some nitrates. How old are the test kits & what kind are you using? Your puffers are showing symptoms of ammonia/nitrite poisoning. Are you using marine salt? What is your water change schedule?

It does have live plants...and I change the water about once a week...Like 20% once a week...The kits are good...I have 2 other tanks...I am not new to fish...I have been keeping them many years I am just new to puffers