The Puffer Forum

Hello everyone,

I NEED some help here. I was just at a store and had a impulse buy and picked up a green spotted puffer fish. I do not know anything about this fish or what its requirements are. The person at the store didnt seem to know much about it as well and said its a fresh water fish so I brought one home without doing any homework on it. It seemed really lively at the store and up and alert on the drive home. I had asked the guy at the store about the PH level and what to do to maintain the water he said to just use purified water and it should be fine like I said I do not know anything about this and he also said that it will do OK in 1.8 gallon Tetra tank with a filter and advised me to purchase their Tetra Globe for like $30.00 so I did.

Now that I brought the fish home it does not seem to be lively as it was at the store when I first put the fish in the little tank it was swimming around kind of rapidly then it started slowing down and now its just sitting at the bottom of the tank which is really worrying me. I didnt add any water to the little globe tank and figured it would be best to use the water that came with the fish for starters and see how it adapts before adding more water. The guy told me to use purified bottle water to start off with and also sold me some freeze dried blood worms for food again its for Tetra's from what the bottle says.

I would really appreciate some input on what to do here as i dont want the poor fish to suffer or worse.

Thanks
Aaron

1.8 gallon? It needs a 30 gallon tank! And it's a brackish/marine fish, not freshwater. They are only sold in freshwater.

In a 1.8 gallon you'll need to do water changes every 30 minutes to remove the ammonia.

You were just COMPLETELY taken at the pet store, either on purpose or by inexperienced employees.

GSP INFO
library/puffers-in-focus/an-introductio ... d-puffers/

HOW TO EMERGENCY CYCLE A TANK
library/water-filtration/emergencycycle/

HOW TO FEED A GSP
library/feeding/feeding-your-puffers/

HOWEVER, it can't survive in a 1.8 gallon, uncycled tank. Please consider taking it back. No fish, not even a snail, will survive a tank that small.

Some of the worst pet store advice I've ever heard. Was it by chance WalMart?


If you want to keep you puffer I would recommend going to Craigslist and find no less than a 29g right now. The fish will eventually need something bigger but a 29g will be good for a while. I would also be doing no less than 50% daily water changes in the "globe" because your little fish is dying from the ammonia, his own waste. In fact I'd double that to 2x 50% water changes. Better yet I would go out and buy a large rubbermade tote until you get another tank. If you don't he will die very soon.

Btw, don't worry about salt right now. Get and keep the fish healthy for now. Fresh water will also make all the water changes you will be doing in the very near future easier.


Good luck.

Thanks for the information everyone. I had NO idea on what it takes to take care of this little guy and to be honest its a lot more than I can handle at this time. Im just going to take the little guy back to the store where I got it from and yes it was Walmart but the problem I have is there isn't one near where I live. This was my first random visit to a Walmart and guess I got taken by the pet department associate. I have changed 50% of the water numerous times and hoping the fish will be OK until after work tomorrow so that I can make the trek to Walmart and take everything back especially the fish.

Thanks again...
Aaron