The Puffer Forum

I have been doing a lot of reading on f8 puffers and other puffers and I keep reading references to there belly going gray when stressed but that it's not as bad as if it has dark rings on it. Could someone please tell me what they are talking about? What does it mean when there belly goes gray and or has dark rings on it?

Also when I got my puffers home 4 days ago they had ich and I have read over and over of others bringing theirs home and finding out their puffers are sick and a great many die soon after. Is that the normal way it goes do most of them die of things they have before you even get them. Mine were not in the pet store tanks I got them as soon as they arrived at the store because I had ordered them and they were sick, chewed up, and one stressed so bad it just stayed on the bottom of the tank curled in a ball Sorry this is so long and confusing but please don't tell me to read another sticky.

LOL, no sticky on that!

Whenever you take an animal out of their natural habitat, ship them to the other side of the world (whether or not they are put into the LFS tanks or yours) it is complete stress on them, which stresses their immune system, causing them to catch diseases. In addition, they are caught in BW & put directly into FW by the shipper (no acclimation).

Try to get them into a fully cycled tank & up the SG, as soon as possible, to help their immune system to recover. Feeding healthy foods will help too. These fellas go thru a lot to get to our tanks!

I'm not sure what you're talking about "dark rings"? That is usually caused by pufferbites & go away in a few days. Melafix promotes faster healing.