The Puffer Forum

i have a 55 gallon aquarium that i am slowly bringing up to brackish conditions and am currently at a SG of 1.004
my pH is just over 8 ammonia and nitrate are 0 and nitrite is 17
i have 2 gsps in this tank along with a convict cichlid, 2 penguin tetras, a ghost knife, and a pleco
i added the two puffers at different times and the one i added first was the smaller one so he could get used to the tank before the slightly larger gsp was added (small is around one inch with larger being about 1.25 inches) for the first few days the little guy was fine and swimming around the place just fine, but recently he will only swim around once in awhile and otherwise just kinda sits at the bottom, his coloring remains good, and he eats pretty good every couple of days( i have fed them small snails some frozen brine shrimp occasionally as a treat and freeze dried shrimp) i would like to find a better alternative to the freeze dried shrimp as it floats and seems to be the least accepted out of the three foods, do you have any ideas on what his problem could be, the other one is doing wonderfully swimming around good as can be, i purchased both from different lfs with the larger being from a better maintained lfs with better care, and both were quarantined, any advice and thoughts would be greatly appreciated asap

GSPs are messy eaters, grow pretty fast and require ~30 gallons each. Two in a 55-gallon tank is OK with good filtration and frequent water changes, but they probably won’t tolerate tank mates for long and the extra bioload is really not something you want in a 55 with two GSPs. Are you using Marine mix or aquarium salt? GSPs require marine mix, whereas your other fish require FW or perhaps a little bit of common salt. I hate to say this but something has to go...

Brine shrimp, especially frozen, has little or no nutritional value and has a tendency to get lodged in your gravel, under rocks, in your filter (etc.) and results in increased bioload. I'd recommend omitting them from the diet. Read the GSP articles in the Library for a list of alternative foods for your GSPs (along with a lot of other useful information). By the way, freeze-dried foods should be soaked in water from your tank for a few minutes before being fed to your puffers. Adding liquid vitamins to the mix is also a good idea.

Have any of the other fish been picking on the smaller GSP? Any signs of swollen/sunken belly, spots or other unusual symptoms other than him not being as active as before?

i am using marine mix and i wouldnt mind putting the other fish in a different tank, puffers are my priority
as to the tank mates the convict has been after him for quite some while, i dont know if you would say that his belly is sunk in because when he eats it gets bigger, but he isnt the fattest of the species
thanks for the quick reply
read this too i dont want to lose the little guy

buzz wrote:i am using marine mix and i wouldnt mind putting the other fish in a different tank, puffers are my priority

Well, you certainly have the right attitude! I also have two GSPs and I share your enthusiasm.

If the small GSP is eating and has good color, you probably aren’t going to lose him anytime soon and we'll do our best to ensure that he lives for many years in your care. Start by reading the GSP articles in the Library. They will give you a good foundation of knowledge to build upon. If anything is unclear or your have questions, don't hesitate to post questions here. There are a lot of very experienced puffer keepers on the forum and all of them are happy to help.

Could you post a few pics of your tank and of the smaller GSP?

yea ive read everything on here and pretty much everywhere else on the web about these little guys i just wanted to make sure there wasnt anything that i was missing that could be a problem with him, i know you guys are so awesome ive had a couple of puffers in the past but ive always had problems even after doing some research, i didnt really take all the parameter and salt stuff seriously until i found this message board and it really instilled the importance of these things for my puffers, yea i think i should be able to post some pics of my tank and the little guy, my mom has a digital camera so it shouldnt be too hard, lemme know if you think of anything else
thanks again partner

The information you've provided so far doesn't lead me to think that there is anything physically wrong with your GSP. I've seen Convicts beat up on Oscars that were 4-5 times as large though and I'm wondering if the small GSP might feel a bit threatened. Is he usually staying in one area of the tank, maybe under a plant or near some rock formation?

I'm sure some of the others will drop in with more questions or to offer advice.

yea he has a few various areas around the tank that seem like hiding places, and whenever he even catches a glimpse of the convict he gets the heck outta there. unless the convict sneaks up on him then he gets quite a surprise and lately ive been very tempted to do something with the convict (get rid of him) to solve this problem he still moves around from time to time
thanks again

buzz wrote:yea he has a few various areas around the tank that seem like hiding places, and whenever he even catches a glimpse of the convict he gets the heck outta there. unless the convict sneaks up on him then he gets quite a surprise and lately ive been very tempted to do something with the convict (get rid of him) to solve this problem he still moves around from time to time
thanks again

Heh i was always curious of what would happen if a convict squared off against my girl. I'm sure she would put that convict in their place.

Yeah...sounds like he's healthy, but having a nightmare with the convict.
I'd remove the convict, as if he keeps stressing the gsp out, his health may start to fail.
Pami.

FW and BW fish are incompatable anyway due to water requirements. The convict and any other FW fish should be moved out.

I assume the original post had a typo? Nitrite at 17ppm would be immediately fatal.

yea that would have been nitrate not nitrite and im going to be removing that pesky convict today if i can catch him hes a quick little bugger, any tips for that without stressing out the other fish in the aquarium
thanks

You might as well remove all of the other fish at the same time as they will not do well in the marine mix anyway.

i think im headed that way and ill be picking up some monos and scats on thursday they should be good tankmates

Both Monos and Scats are too big and/or messy for a 55 with a puffer.

theyre pretty small id move them out when they got bigger pal