The Puffer Forum

Hello everyone, i recently bought a tank that just happen to come with 4 puffer fish. I am fairly new to puffers since iv only had gold fish in the past, i really like the fish and i want to make sure i dont kill them.

when the guy came to my house he helped me set up the tank, he brought around 10 gallons of the old water that they where originally in.We put the gravel and a rock( i didnt have much time to set up decor because we wanted the fish in the water asap), then we put the 10 gallons of old water in the tank. I then used tap water to top it of along with conditioner that is suppost to make tap water safe. i then set up air pump and filter and got the tank up and running. i bought instant ocean salt and the guy gave me his old hydrometer to get it to the correct levels( it think they are correct, i have pic below).

2 of the smaller fish had normal white belly's, but the 2 larger ones had brown spots on the side of there belly's.


im just wondering if i used be concerned, i bought a 5 in one test strips but im not 100% sure how to read them.

we set up the tank on the 9/21/17.

i have not changed the water because i just set up the tank so i didnt think i needed to

its a 80G tank approximately 4x2

all 4 puffers are swimming around normally, they are very active and come up to the glass, they are also eating so i dont seem to notice any abnormal behavior, but im still a noobie with these fish.

Iv been feeding them some frozen half shell clams, frozen krill,a few Malaysian snails from my yard,and some earth worms that i bought at walmart. I have rinsed off all their food with cold tap water prior to feeding it to them

Im not sure if the color is there because of moving them, he did drive like 40 min to my house so they where out of the tank for maybe 1hr+


Heres are some photos

The tank
https://i.imgur.com/gkdXuLV.jpg

"Sick" puffer 1
https://i.imgur.com/0htnTWo.jpg

"Sick" Puffer 2
https://i.imgur.com/q61tsPV.jpg


Hydrometer Reading
https://i.imgur.com/A41XeFr.jpg

Water Temp
https://i.imgur.com/VEBf504.jpg

Dark belly can often be a sign of stress. No wonder, being moved, right? Seems you did everything right, although it would have been better to transfer over more of their original water which would have been quite a feat for a tank of that size. Forget those test strips, they're crap. Get yourself a liquid API test kit. You needs LOTS more decor though, breaking up the lines of sight. After the tank has been stable for a few weeks, switch out that gravel for aragonite sand.
library/puffers-in-focus/an-introductio ... d-puffers/

I just noticed when i got home from work that both puffers belly's were white, after i feed them some worms their belly's changed colors again.What does this mean? am i over feeding?

Mine used to please get dark when the 8th. Sounds like they're doing well. Just change the substrate and add more dacor and you're good to go!