The Puffer Forum

So, I'm mad at my local fish store. TL;DR my GSP baby is grayish/black due to misinformation at fish store and now I need to save him!

Backstory: i fell in love with the GSP I saw at the fish store. Before even going to the store I had been cycling a 20gallon and cycled it as freshwater for 6 weeks. Nitrate was at a 15, nitrite zero, alkalinity 130, pH 7.8, and temp was at 80degrees. The salesperson said this was perfect for two GSP (I know better now that I've done some research). Anyway, I took his word for it and got the two.

Now: I acclimated them slowly (over the course of about 2hrs) before releasing them in the tank. Approx 6hrs later one of them had a prolapsed anus and I freaked out and did a bunch of research only to find out they *should* be in brackish water instead, and in a much bigger tank. Thankfully they were tiny so I figured I'd have time to upgrade. I planned to take him to the store the next day to see if they could help. He didn't make it through the night and it broke my heart. I took him anyway (since it had been less than 24hrs) and I took a water sample. Everything checked out other than the salinity, and this new salesperson I worked with said that it was probably from being stressed out in the freshwater (even though the other lil guy was perfectly fine, but it turns out they already keep them in brackish water at the store....which the first guy didn't tell me). Anyway, this guy told me to remove my current puffer and add marine salt mixture to the tank and then slowly reintroduce him to the tank in order to prevent the same from happening to him. So I did. I took him out, I added salt (to a salinity of 1.008) and then acclimated him back in. And now his belly is turning grayish black! What did I do wrong? And how do I save him?!? I don't want to lose another one and I know now that I should have done way more research before bringing them home to begin with...but I want to save him. Is it too late? What can I do to help?

How EXACTLY did you cycle this tank? Was the pufer at that same salinity at the store? Jumping your salinity from 1.000 FW) to 1.008, will surely crash the bacterial support of your fish. GSPs often swim from FW-SW in 1 day, so putting in FW (especially acclimated for 2 hours) is no issue at at all.

I had originally cycled the tank for 6 weeks simply with dechlorinated water and stocked with duckweed, anubis, and Seed bacteria by AquaVitro (same as I had done for all 7 of my betta aquariums - but for 4 weeks longer since I was originally going to use this tank for a community before I went to the store and found the puffers). Once the planted part seemed to be thriving and the water levels were where I wanted them I got the GSP. I've continued to keep an eye on the water and the only thing that spiked slightly was the nitrate, which usually happens when I add fish to a new tank, but it's going down now and the water is still at a salinity of 1.008 ... The puffer still has a little gray on the underbelly, but is looking SO much better than when I originally posted. I'm guessing it was just shock? I've kept sick a close eye on him and he's active and happy and eats well, so I'm hoping it was just a fluke? I just wanted to make sure there was nothing else I could be doing better or do better next time (since I'm eventually going to upgrade his tank size and will have to re-establish his living conditions). GSP are a lot more delicate in this aspect than my betta have been so this is all new to me and I want to provide him with the best I can.