The Puffer Forum

Hi everyone!
I have two green spotted puffer fish, Sandy and Bob. They are about 1.25-1.5 inches each in a heavily planted 20 gallon tank (I know it's too small but I have about another month to go on the renovations in my house before I can move them to the 75 gallon tank). The salinity is .10, the ph is 7.8-8, the temp is a constant 80 degrees, nitrates 0, nitrites 0.5 or less, alkalinity 300. Recently, my ph was low and the fish looked lethargic. I was told not to raise the ph with chemicals so I went to the store and got crushed coral and that raised the ph to 7.8-8. I do 50-60% water changes EVERY Saturday, religiously. I have a 40-50 gallon filter on the tank and I use Start Right when doing the water changes to get rid of the chlorine and it also has aloe I guess for the slime on the fish coat? Also, I am using instant ocean marine salt NOT aquarium salt. Bob seems to be doing really well, swimming about and he has a glowing green spot on his head and a pure white belly. Sandy on the other hand, sometimes lays on the bottom of the tank, her colors will dull and she will get gray on her belly. She curls up in a ball and just kind of lays there. Is she sick? When she gets up and starts swimming again she gets her colors back bright and the grey on her belly will go away but it seems like half the day she is laying on the bottom and the other half she swims. I looked at her and her body looks fine and there are no signs of ick or parasites or any other sickness. The only this is every once in a while it seems like one of her side fins gets stuck to the side of her or she gets to lazy and only uses one fin but then it pops back out and flaps around like normal. I just don't know what to do. I don't want to use chemicals unless I have to. I have a fungus guard here for scale-less fish and also an ick treatment for scale-less fish but I don't want to use those unless I havto because it is my understanding that they aren't all that good for the fish. Also, their diet consists of freeze dried blood worms, frozen gut loaded brine shrimp, snails (but I don't know if only bob ate the snails and sandy didn't. I did see Bob eat one and now they are all gone). I tried putting in 4 ghost shrimp yesterday after quarantining them into another tank for a few days and neither fish seemed to want anything to do with them. So now they are just chilling in the tank and I don't know if that is bad, if I should try to catch them and put them back into the quarantine tank until Sandy and Bob get bigger? They haven't seemed to get any bigger at all since I got them but they are still just babies. I am so upset about Sandy. I love them both so much and I just want to help her get better if she is sick. But I am hoping that maybe she is just sleeping and this is normal. I don't know, please help

Also, they really seem to love eachother and when Sandy is laying down at the bottom of the tank, Bob will go down and kind of snuggle with her. I don't want anything to happen to Sandy because while it will not only break my heart, I feel like it might also break Bob's heart too and he would die then?? Or am I just imagining this?

The curling into a ball and darkening is common gsp sleeping. Try to get them suitably housed ASAP to keep stress to a minimum for them.

Do they sleep often? It seems like when I first got them, they never slept and within the last couple of weeks they started doing this. Is it that they are just more comfortable in their home? The tank is heavily planted with a lot of hiding places and sometimes it takes a while for me to find where they are at. I just realized that Bob and Sandy both are hiding out, sometimes at the same time, sometimes at different times. Also, I read that when so small like they are now, the SG should be lower like at .004, mine is at .010, and has been since I got them?

It could be that they are now more settled. As for salinity you could have them at full marine so long as they are correctly acclimatised.

Thanks Bertie! I do want to go to full marine once I move them to the bigger tank. I have heard different views but some people I have talked to tell me that marine is easier to take care of than fresh water. I find that using the crushed coral and weekly water changes makes it so I don't have to use any chemicals whatsoever in the tank, which makes me happy because I like to be a naturalist. They were in fresh water when I bought them and I had them in the fresh water for a few days and slowly brought the SG up to .010 and they seem to be really a lot happier in the BW than in the FW. I know that they are mostly fresh caught fish so I would like to try to keep them in as close to the wild conditions as possible. I want them to be happy, healthy and loved. And I'm pretty sure that they are better off with me, even in a smaller tank for another month than at the horrid store or sold to someone with the understanding that they are dwarfs only to find out that they are actually green spotted puffer fish which have a totally different tank specifications. I just really hope that Sandy is okay!

How was the tank cycled? Also how quickly did you raise the salinity?

I used the filter from another tank with fish that I had and then I put some live plants and live sand in the tank. I never had an experience with these fish or brackish water at all. The lady at the lfs lied to my husband and told him that they were dwarf puffers and that they were pretty much the same to take care of as goldfish. what prompted me to do some research was the fact that she told him that they would need a heater in the winter time, which sounded odd to me because out room temp is always the same through out the year. I'm sure the tank wasn't fully cycled when I first put them in there but I definitely think it is now, as all of the levels have been perfect and the same for the last three weeks, with the exception of the ph being a little low until I added the crushed coral a few days ago and that's been holding stady at a 7.8-8.0. I only do 50% water changes each week so that way I know that half of the water is the same and I always use Start Rite. I was very uneducated and I had to learn really quick. Do I think I put them in the best conditions to start off with? No, it could have been cycled longer and better. I didn't want to take them back to the lfs though because they called me a liar when I told them they are gsps and not dps and I have a sneaking suspicion that they wre giving so much wrong info to buyers that even if I took them back they wouldn't necessairily go to a better home. Since I posted this, I changed around the whole tank, plants, tunnels, houses and stuff because I thought maybe they were bored and that's why they were napping a lot. In the last hour, they have been bee-boppin' around the tank, bring green with bright white no grey bellies. I don't know. I don't know if they are just trying to get a rise out of me or if something is really wrong. I have a friend at an lfs who maybe could come and see them and let me know what he thinks. I just love my little babies so much!

It is very possible she is stressed out in the small tank, with nowhere to establish her own territory.

PP. I have another 20 gallon tank up and going right now as freshwater for snail breeding and to quarantine the ghost shrimp. Do you think it would be better to raise the salinity to the same level and put Sandy in the separate tank? I would hate to separate them because they seem like they really are companions. They don't chase eachother or nip at eachother, they lay together when they are napping and seem really close. I do understand that can change as they mature and that they might not always get along but right now it's almost like they are brother and sister. I have a ton of hiding spots (makeshift caves, houses, lots of plants) but if it would be better to have them in separate tanks I can definitely do that?

The only reason I haven't set up the larger tank yet is because we are renovating and out plan is to build the tank into the wall that seperates the kitchen and living room so you can see it from both sides. This will be done in a month but I can't set up the tank until it's in place otherwise I would have to completely empty it to put it where it is supposed to go.

The darkening and curling up is very common for young GSP's that are stressed or more than likely sleeping, IME

For example here some shots of mine doing the same thing: