The Puffer Forum

My GSP is really sick, she wont move - shes breathing hard and I've attached a picture. My water parameters are within normal limits - and her last meal was shrimp - though she ate waay too much. She ate the other puffers dinner last night - there was nothing I could do. Could she be 'stopped up'? My other GSP is fine. Im sooo worried!! This just happened this afternoon.download/file.php?mode=view&id=6109

Try adding 1 tbsp/5g of Epsom salt, if you think it's constipation.
It would help if you answered ALL the Qs above, in red, though.

The aquarium has been set up for years. Ive run out of test strips but I just did our regularly scheduled water change.... so I'm assuming water quality is within normal parameters. Its a 40 gal with 2 GSPs. Ive almost finished their new 100 gal so this is bad timing for Olivia to get sick and pass. I fed them shrimp last night but she was unusually piggish and ate more than her share. She was fine this morning and looked like this when I came home form work today. I did what you said and added Epsom salts - at least it's an attempt. She's on her side now and I've been holding her up so her gill isn't in the sand. I'm so sad. The other GSP is fine. I just dont know.

And she's about 7 years old. I don't know the life span of a GSP but I thought it was linger than that.

So Olivia was terribly bloated and I read a forum about burping a puffer that has taken in air. I know that she likes to bite at the surface of the water so I gave this a try... and she released a LOT of air and "vomit" and her tummy went way down. Poor thing, I may be starving her now. But she still rolls on to her side.

Then I saw this post viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1292 regarding a "sudden puffer death syndrome" and when they described the blanching of the skin, it sounded like my Olivia. So I did what the post said and added the correct dosage of Melafix to see how that may help. I read about it this "syndrome" more on the web and it sounds horrible... and no one knows the cause. The blanching on Olivia is much worse - almost completely white now with a little darkness on her underside... but she's still breathing. Were hanging in there.

Poor puff is passing

I'm sorry she's doing so badly. It's sad that in the 7 years you've kept them, you never purchased a proper liquid test kit. Please do a 50% water change right now!

thanks.

Pufferpunk wrote: It's sad that in the 7 years you've kept them, you never purchased a proper liquid test kit. Please do a 50% water change right now!

Actually, I HAVE had liquid test kits in the past 7 years- many of them. I just don't have one right now and rely on test strips in a pinch. Please don't point fingers when you don't know much about my last 7 years. I've already completed the water change you mentioned since she had taken ill. The other puffer in the tank is still fine - no signs of stress or illness.
Olivia passed last night - to no surprise. She was a good fish.

defool89 wrote:Poor puff is passing

I'm so sorry. That is really sad. You did what you could, and maybe others learned something from it. I've never seen or heard of the skin turning that color.

Thank you, PufferMe.

PufferMe! wrote: I've never seen or heard of the skin turning that color.

I read about it in my frantic search for answers in a blog from WETWEB. They described exactly what I saw happen to Olivia. Here's the link http://www.wetwebmedia.com/brackishsubw ... uffaq3.htm The blog is lower towards the bottom of the page - or just search by ctl-F "Syndrome" and it'll take you to it.
I still think it might have been intestinal stoppage - she was such a sow. I'm going to do a necropsy tonight to see. I'll report my findings here. I miss her already.

How large was the fish when you got it? If it was mature who knows the actual age and maybe it was just a full life. Either way sorry it didn't make it.

Thanks for sharing, this was informative.

bigskies wrote: Actually, I HAVE had liquid test kits in the past 7 years- many of them. I just don't have one right now and rely on test strips in a pinch. Please don't point fingers when you don't know much about my last 7 years.

Alright, sorry for jumping to that conclusion. Sorry for the loss of your friend.

JRC3 wrote:How large was the fish when you got it? If it was mature who knows the actual age and maybe it was just a full life. Either way sorry it didn't make it.

Thank you JRC3.
She was about 2 inches when I got her - she was a Wal Mart rescue. That was about 7 years ago. She was starving when I bought her but she's been in immaculate health ever since - and happy. She was definitely an adult - about 6 1/2 " long and her living conditions were supportive of an adult GSP... except for not finishing her larger tank fast enough to transfer her from her 40 gal to the 100 gal. I hope that wasn't the cause.

They generally live to their upper teens.