The Puffer Forum

Hi I am new to the puffer forum. I have a very sick puffer. I bought him about 2.5 weeks ago from Wal-Mart (he was the only one still living). I have been treating him for parasites with API general cure. His water is 1.004 salinity, in a 20 gallon tank. I know he will need larger but he is only a little over an inch right now. He has been a darker color ever since I got him. He has a little patch of green on top of him but that’s it. All is spots are clearly visible, he swims around and eats normally. I do have black substrate so I wasn’t sure if that would cause him to stay dark. I have 3 other tanks, so I’d consider myself experienced, just not experienced with puffers. I can’t post pictures of him because it says the file is too big but any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I moved this to the Hospital Forum, so you can answer all the Qs above, in red.
I do think you have purchased a sick fish--especially since all the others were dead. I am totally against "saving" Walmart fish. This just encourages them to buy more, thinking, even though they mistreat them, they are still great sellers.

What questions are you seeing? I only see your response.

I know. After I got him, I took pictures of the living conditions and sent it to the store manager. He said they will no longer be carrying them in that walmart because of the many “complaints and deaths of the puffers”. I went in there this week to see if they got any in their fish order and there wasn’t any.

I now see a small growth on his tail.

I feel like an idiot not seeing the HUGE red box full of questions but here is all my info

PH- 7.5
NO2- 0.5
NO3- 20
Salinity- 1.004
Water Temp- 78F
Tank Size- 20 Gal. with 2 large fake plants, 3 little fake plants, 4 moss balls, 1 large java fern, 5 feeder guppies
Schedule- I feed him every morning with his food soaked in API general cure. I have been doing a 25% water change every other day (using a gravel vacuum) With the new water I put prime, and 3 tbsp of Instant Ocean (to keep the water a consistent 1.004)
Changes- I have added the moss balls, and another large plant. The tank is now set up with live plants and fake plants.
Cycling- The tank has been set up for almost a month

I have had a problem with this white hair looking algae growing. It looks soft and fluffy lol. The puffer fish has a white growth on his back fin, it does not look like ick.

Ammonia? Should never be showing any nitrite. .5 is toxic.

sorry, ammonia is .08. I have been having a hard time with nitrite. I have no idea how to keep it at zero consistently in this tank

Your tank is not cycled. Did you read the link on cycling?

yes, but it reqires me to take all the fish out, and I currently don’t have another tank to put them in. At this point I feel like I should do a 75% water change to bring everything back to zero. I also can’t have a filter cartridge due to the API general cure for his parasites. I’m stuck, I’ve never had problems like this with my water.

Yeah, I just wanted you to read what a healthy cycle entailed. Try this one now: library/water-filtration/emergencycycle/