The Puffer Forum

So I got my two GSP's today (yay!) and I'm drip acclimating them right now. One of them has a fin that has clearly been partially bitten off - half of it is missing and the top is completely red. What should I do? Do I need to take any steps right now? Will it grow back? I seem to remember a product called Melafix being mentioned on here for such things, should I use this? Of anything I need to do, please post whether or not it can wait until tomorrow of if it needs to be done right now. Thank you!

Here is a picture of it, sorry I couldn't get a very good one. It's the puffer on the near side and it's the top fin, just before his tail. You should be able to see the red.

the sooner the better:
clean water, clean water, clean water............
Melafix is good to prevent or treat infection
Pimafix is good to prevent or treat fungal infestations
both can be used at the same time (READ THE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY)
add airstones to increase aeration when treating with either or both
if the tank is otherwise healthy, fins usually grow back just fine

So I should use both then? And how frequent of water changes would you recommend? I did a 50% pwc yesterday and a 10% today before I added the fish - the tank is fully cycled but I didn't want to run the risk of the puffers overloading my bioload so I added some SafeStart. I've heard if you do water changes within the first 2 weeks you can remove the SafeStart material but I don't think thats likely because I added it directly to the filter. Could someone weigh in on this? Pufferpunk, I think you said I'd be fine with water changes before, right?

Just to give you more info: his fin is moving absolutely fine and he's super active, so I don't think it's impairing him at all.

bigpuff wrote:So I should use both then?

it's up to you
if it were mine, I'd go with the Melafix, but have some Pimafix on hand just in case any fungus shows up

bigpuff wrote:And how frequent of water changes would you recommend?

often enough to keep ammonia @ 0, nitrites @ 0, nitrates @ <10
what are your parameters now, what size tank?
it would be very helpful to know all the info in the red box, above
have you looked at it?

Yes I have, I just post so often on here I don't always put it, sorry! Tank is a 55 gallon, ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrate 5ppm. Filter: Fluval 306. Temp: around 78 degrees.

Did it happen at the fish store? Or while you were drip acclimating? Keep an eye on them...make sure one isn't aggressive.

The fins should be fine and will likely grow back. Mine looked pretty ragged when I got him/her as well due to nipping in an overstocked lfs tank. 6 months in and all the fins are back and great looking!

Thats good news! The fin was like that before I got it. I got them right as they arrived to the LFS and they were in a bag of about 10-15 of them (hadn't been put into a tank yet), so it could've been from one of the fish in there or it could've happened before. The one with the chipped fin is actually the more aggressive of the two I have, but they both nip each others fins (but always the tail fin - not the injured fin). The other GSP barely nips the injured one, I think he just does it in retaliation. It's about a 10:1 ratio in favor of the chipped fin fish to give you an idea of the aggression. Since I've just added them I'm assuming they're just figuring out territory and pecking order and that it's nothing to be worried about, but correct me if I'm wrong.

Yeah, in a tight condition like that, there will be a lot of nipping going on...I think there were about 20 in the 20gal tank I got mine from. most of them were pretty chewed up.

I'm not sure about the other thing. I've only ever kept a singleton as I only have a 40g tank. I'd suggest you keep an eye on them until they settle into their separate turfs. Be prepared to at best increase the amount of decoration to break up sight lines and at worst, if they really start pounding each other, relocating one.

They should settle down soon enough. Are yours in brackish or marine?

True. Yeah, I have a lot of decor already that breaks up the lines of sight so I'll just see how it plays out over the next week or so. The tank is very low end brackish right now (1.002), I'm in the process of raising it to 1.006-1.010 (will depend on how big they are when I measure them) and in a year or two ill probably convert to full marine.