The Puffer Forum

hi i bought a spotted green puffer from my lfs and now that i have relized i know nothing about it i need help he ws doing fine the first couple of days that i had him and now he is falling head first into the gravel and seems that he does not have enough strength to swim at all
my ph is 8.0 my hardness is unknown but is quite hard my tank is fully cycled with no ammonia and no nitrites and 3 nitrate i do weekly water changes of at least 10% and feed once a day i have added some doc wells aquarium salt to the water and have medicated with an all purpose remedy and ick please help

jdluvsjane wrote:i bought a spotted green puffer from my lfs and now that i have relized i know nothing about it i need help

That's how many of us got started with puffers.

Please answer all of the questions here so the folks on the forum can better diagnose what might be the problem.

Also, how long has he been acting this way? What meds did you use, how much and how big is your tank? Puffers are extremely sensitive to many common meds.

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my tank is a ten gallon i use wardleys all purpose med he does have some do wellfish aquarium salt and gets fed earth worms meal worms snails and shrimp pellets he has been this way going on one week now

What are the meds in there for?

Make sure to read about the care & feeding of this puffer in the Library.

the meds were incase he had something that i could not see

You should absolutely never medicate any fish for a condition you haven't diagnosed them with. Puffers especially, are very sensitive to meds--some are even deadly to them (copper, for instance). Also, using meds unnecessarily, can lower the immune system & cause resistance to the meds when they may actually be necessary.

i medicated at half dose
is aquarium salt or uniodized table salt ok to use instead of marine salt
as an update he is now acting as if he has swim bladder disorder but he seems he is breathing fine but is just not able to swim or hold himself up for very long
when i first started this trade several years ago i bought my first gsp and he did this for about an hour and just died but any help that is offered is greatly appreciated

Puffers don't have swimbladders.

Would you take 1/2 the dosage of the meds you had around the house just in case you might get sick?

You must use marine salt. If you aren't prepared to care for this fish properly, maybe you should return it until you have done more research & saved up for the necesssary items this special fish needs to thrive.

the puffer is doing better he is able to keep upright and swim and is beggining to be more perky i will watch him for a few days and then return him to my local fish store because i am not prepared for this fish as of yet but will try again in a few months after some more research and cycling his brackish tank

Sounds like the smart/caring thing to do.

I applaud your decision!

Please continue to hang around the forum, read and ask lots of questions if you are unsure about anything.