The Puffer Forum

Ok so heres the deal, i set up an aquarium for a green spotted puffer, but kept it freshwater ( i know that most petstores keep 'em in freshwater). i saw that petco carried them, and the one that they had looked starved. it was kept with the glofish, and they probably tried feeding it flakes. the tail had nipping signs and the ouffer was extremely shy. i bought it out of sorrow, and i wanted one anyway. so i brought it hone, acclimated it to the tank temp, and now, a day later, he is just sitting in the corner of the tank (30 gal) doing nothing. he does not look good. what do?

I would get some live blackworms and soak in vitamins like vita chem this is to get something subtantial if they did have him on flake. After he has eaten I would follow the feeding guidlines in the library here.. You need to start bringing the salinity up in the tank. This needs to be done with marine salt not aquarium salt. The salinity cannot be raised more than .002 per week. Is the gsp the only inhabirant of the tank? How long has the tank been running, how was it cycled, do you have results of a recent water test?

This should really be in the hospital section. If a moderator could move this.

Welcome. Try soaking some food with crushed garlic. Puffers will often hunger strike for a week or so after being added to a new tank

Didnt notice this was your first post. Welcome!

What have you tried feeding him?

Get some small snails (LFS usually gives them away as they are nuisance snails). GSP's usually can't resist.

Please answer ALL the Qs above, in RED.

Ok i figured it out. the puffer died a few days after i had put him in. its a shame but it should have been expected. the tank had not been cycled. I admit i am at fault here.

sorry to hear that. Are you going to cycle it and try another puff?

For future reference check out this post I made. viewtopic.php?f=2&t=32416

i have been cycling my tank with mollies since my puffer died. now i have 2 mollies, a bunch of ghost shrimp, and 2 otocinclus catfish. ill be ordering 3 red eye puffers in about 2-3 days. the tank is now planted and well established. also, i have noticed that the petco that sold me the puffer now has a 5 gallon tank with about 8 1" GSPs... they are all suffering from fin nipping, one of them doesnt even have a scrap of tail!