The Puffer Forum

I have had my GSP for about 9 months now. He is about 2" in length and lives in a 36 gal tank with no tank mates. His salt is at 1.08 and temp. at 78 F. I have never had any problems with him or the water. I do regular water changes once a week, changing about 25% each time. His diet consists of shrimp, bloodworms, and snails and i feed him one of those foods once a day. But about a 2 weeks ago i noticed him not acting like his energetic self following a water change I did the previous evening. He was rubbing on his decor. and as the days went on he started laying at the bottom of his tank, breathing heavily, and he started to clamp his fins and curl up at the bottom of his tank; also turning very dark in color. I took his water to be tested at the privately own fish store i had purchased him from and they said his water was perfect for him (as i try to keep it) and they couldn't suggest what it could be that is making him sick. He has no white spots, fins are not frayed or damaged, and there is no sign of any parasites or fungus. I have been currently doing regular water changes every 2 days or so just to keep it fresh for breathing and hoping it would help him which it has in some way. Over the past week he has been swimming more and hasn't scratched on anything at all but he tires very, very easily. He has had no problems eating since this all started and is still eating well.
My BIG concern is that his right gill has become very swollen and he does not use his left one at all anymore! His left gill looks like it is completely closed or clamped shut to his body and just looks like part of his normal skin, it would be hard to locate if a person didn't know where gills were located on a fish. The skin under his left eye leading to the gill area has become wrinkled looking and today i had noticed it looked a bit sunken in! His color is mostly very dull but his belly is still white and over the past few days has been sleeping more than swimming. I have searched all over the internet hoping to find a cause and solution to help him and have come out empty handed.I would be more than appreciative of any advice you could give me in regards to my Lil Puffer!! He is my best friend and seeing him like this breaks my heart.

I'm not too good. With this type of thing but if you had a picture it would really help the people who are able to help you. Do you know what your water parameters were because numbers are a lot more helpful than saying perfect?

We need the numbers of your water parameters. It could still be ick (whitespot) as it's primarily a gill disease they just spread to the skin once the gills are full