The Puffer Forum

Hi Guys,

Recently my GSP is acting really weird. One of them is kind of like blind, doesn't seem like there is any injury or something with the eyes.

I feed them dry blood worms, and usually they eat it like crazy but recently one of them kind of like trying to eat them but can't see them. He was basically searching for food but can't see them then when he felt like smelled or saw something than he ate it even the food is everywhere.

Is this ever happen to your GSPs?

hauliau

Please read the questions in the top post of this forum & answer as many as you can. Are dry bloodworms all you're feeding your puffers?

I've been feeding my puffers only dry bloodworms for over 2 months and they are just fine, they love it. Until suddenly 3 days ago, one of the puffers kind of like blind trying to eat the bloodworms but like can't see them. Then I change 50% of the water.

My tank is 29 gallon and currently got 2 GSPs in it.
Before I tested my water I added the Stress Zyme then waited for like one hour to test the water.
Here is the results:
Nitrate : 160
Nitrite : 0
Alkalinity : 120
PH = 7.0
Ammonia = 0

I know the nitrate is really high. So I will change 25% of the water tomorrow. Anyway the salinity now is 1.005.

I've been feeding my puffers only dry bloodworms for over 2 months and they are just fine

If they're just fine, then why are you writing this??? They're not just fine!

Puffers need a varied diet. please read the feeding article in our Library, As far as those nitrates, I would guess big time, that this is your puffer's problem. They need to be kept <20. 25% is not enough. How much do you change out, how often? You should be changing 50% weekly, while cleaning the substrate & rinsing filter material. I would not wait till tomorrow!

I'm not sure what size your puffers are right now, but eventually they will need at least a 60g tank. I'd move them up after they are 2".

I'd use Prime, instead of StressZyme.

Sorry, I mean they were fine with bloodworm til 3 days ago. My puffers now they are about 1.5".

I change my water 25% once a week. Usually I keep the water in the bucket for a day to get rid of the chlorine then use the water tomorrow. I wonder if I can just use the water right out of the tap directly and apply StressCoat, is that fine? Because I heard we have to leave the water a day before it being used.

Thanks

I would up your WC to 50%. You should really be using Prime to dechlor & you need to let the salt dissolve, at least overnight.

Most puffers need something hard such as snails or harder shrimps to wear their teeth off. dried bloodworms are only good as an additional variation of a diet, they are way to soft. If the puffer's teeth grow too long, they starve.


@Pufferpunk

You should be changing 50% weekly, while cleaning the substrate & rinsing filter material. I would not wait till tomorrow!

Is it ok to do water changes and filter cleaning together? Friend killed his fish that way getting a second nitrite peak in long cycled tank. I use to wait one week between the two procedures. I know the water contains not too much bacteria, most are in the filter and some are on surfaces such as decoration and gravel. But cleaning it all up together, is that a good idea?

Rinsing filter material shouldn't kill any bacteria, and IMO, neither should gravel vaccuuming. I don't clean my glass the same day I do a cleaning though...

Those nitrates are definately a problem. We usually aim at keeping them at 10 or lower, 160 is very, very high. Test your tap water to see if you have nitrates in it. If you are doing 25% water changes and your nitrates are that high, you need to figure out where they are coming from and fix that. Its most likely overstocking or overfeeding, so make sure you clean up any uneaten food. Also, GSP's really need a good 30 gallons each (they are very messy fish sensitive to bad water) and a 29 gallon tank only holds 25 gallons, so really, your tank isn't even big enough for one. You'll need to upgrade at some point or risk the fish having major health problems.

I wouldn't use Stress Coat, I don't think its a good product personally. Amquel, Prime or Wardley's Chlor Out are the ones I like.

I wonder if the ph level at 7.0 is that ok? Because I saw the color chart it supposed to be 8.4. What do you guys think?

I plan to change 50% of the water today and hopefully they go back to normal. I'll post the result after water change today.

Corvus, I have been doing huge WC & cleaning filters at the same tine for 27 years, w/o any issues. I would guess there was another reason your friend had that nitrite spike. On the other hand, my tanks are so overfiltrated right now, that I don't clean the filters as often & I have so many tanks, I actually clean them on a different day than WC. All my larger tanks (>50g) have the added biological filtration of Eheim canisters too.

I recently had a long argument with someone who insisted that you should NEVER change more than 25% of the water in any tank. Any more than that and you are guaranteed to crash the biofilter. ROFL

Well, if 5% of bacteria of a tank are in the water, you kill 1.25% of the entire population by a 25% water change. That's almost nothing.

If 80% of bacteria of a tank are in the filter (depending on the type of filter and how you clean it), you can kill quite a large percentage. That's also the reason why it is recommended to clean the filter in warm water. If the survivors are enough to establish the necessary population in time including the bacteria on the decoration and ground it is fine, if not you'll get ammonia (depending on the pH) and/or later on nitrite.

And I agree: overfiltration is best anyway.

When we talk about cleaning the filter media, we are talking about rising the crap off of it. That's it. There's no reason to clean it any other way IMO.

Hey guys,

I've been changing my water 50 % twice last week and I did my water testing everything seems the same as before but the nitrate level is not decreasing, it's still 160.
I wonder what can I do to reduce the nitrate level. I browsed and found the "Kent Nitrate Sponge", is this useful?

Boxermom wrote:When we talk about cleaning the filter media, we are talking about rising the crap off of it. That's it. There's no reason to clean it any other way IMO.

Just to elaborate, you clean the crap off in tank water (if you have to) not fresh tap water.