The Puffer Forum

PLEASE HELP!!!!!
My boyfriend bought two fresh water green-spotted puffers 4 days ago and we have them in a new tank with two crabs that are about the same size as the little puffers. Both are skinny-looking but the healthier looking one has been turning black. He'll be his normal colors one minute, then his belly will turn black. Then a few seconds later, his whole body will turn really dark braown or black, then he will go back to his noraml colors, then a few of his spots will fade away but then reappear but ehn the other spots will have faded. All of this happening within a minute or two. Then the whole process will start over, varying in the order nut he's always changing.
Also, while he's completely darkened, his little fins are really 'getting it' and to me it seems like his struggling to breath or something like that. He eats and swims around but not near as much as the puffer who is doing fine. Just a minute ago, I noticed that the changing puffer is towards the black of the tank and has made himself a spott in the rocks to sit and the normal puffer is hanging around the changing one really close. Almost like the both of them are gaurding that spot in the rocks.
One of the crabs tries to escape all of the time so his last escape attempt, he failed (as usual) and he landed right where the puffers have made this little bed so the puffers moved over to let the crab leave then they went back to their same positions as if it never happened. I thought they were pretty territorial so it surprised me that they didn't try to nip at the crab for falling there. Is something wrong or are they suposed to change colors like that?
And one more thing: the changing one's under-side (his belly. from his lip to his tail) is almost always black. he looks like he laid down in an ink puddle.
I haven't found even one thing that was similar to what's happening to my puffer any where on the net. WHat's going on?

Please read http://www.thepufferforum.org/viewtopic.php?t=5
Then post your answers here. It's the best way to get the help you need.
Also read http://www.thepufferforum.org/viewtopic.php?t=12
Green Spotted Puffers (T.nigroviridis) are brackish as juveniles then full marine as adults.

he might have internal parasites. Can you give me your water paramiters


is he skinny all the time do the black spots start by his eyes and go to his belly. Is his tall darkish. gsp are breakish water you are better off makine it brakish slowly.

stephen

Please do follow those two hyperlinks that Feathers&Fins has provided and post the information requested, here.

Until we get parameters and the like, it's very difficult to help you narrow down the source of the problem. I do have a few things in mind that I would like to suggest, but please post the information requested, first.

Thanks!

Have you got a water testing kit? If not, and if money's a bit tight, you can, for the short term, take a sample of tank water to your lfs to get it tested, but we need those parameters.
Should a crab be trying to escape all the time? Is that normal - or signs of poor water?
Pami.

Crabs will try to escape because they like to explore. You may want to make sure they can not be able to escape by closing off all opening on the top of the tank.

Thanks for everyonw's replies, but I'm sad to say that both puffers died. We won't be buying any more puffers anytime soon... at leat not until I do alot of research on the little guys.

Thanks,
randeeryan

Sorry to hear about your loss. Without seeing your water parameters and knowing a bit more about your tank, it would be very difficult to assess with any certainty what caused your puffers to die. I see one strong clue in your original post though--"we have them in a new tank"--leading me to believe that the culprit may have been New Tank Syndrome (NTS).

New tanks must be cycled before adding fish, especially sensitive fish such as puffers. Contrary to popular belief and even advice given by many less-informed "experts" at local fish stores, leaving a tank running for a few days without fish does not result in a properly cycled tank and cycling a tank with one or two Mollies does establish sufficient bacteria to support the bioload of two GSPs.

In addition to the articles recommended by Feathers&Fins, I'd recommend reading the article on [url=http://thepufferforum.org/viewtopic.php?t=331]fishless cycling[/url in the Library. You can either use this method (my preference for all but emergency cases) or use Bio-Spira to instant-cycle the tank.

It is always good to do a lot of research before attempting to keep puffers. Armed with the right information, it is not difficult to provide an environment that will allow these wonderful fish to live for 10 or more years in you care. Hopefully you will soon feel comfortable enough to try again. When you are ready, we'd be more than happy to help you review your setup then to make sure everything is right before you add your new fish to the tank. Feel free to post if you have any questions.

Sorry to hear that. It happens to more people that you'd think...even long-time members here, when they first started keeping puffers.
They're very sensitive to water quality and shops don't give people the right info on them etc etc...
You go away and do your research, and then come straight back, and I'm sure you'll have more success.
I'd never even had a goldfish before, and I went straight into keeping puffers, but I read up on them for over a year beforehand, and that helped me avoid the major pitfalls and fish store misinformation.
Not to mention this place...
Pami.