The Puffer Forum

55 gallon brackish tank at 1.004 brought it up slow using marine salt 2 gsps 1 about an inch 1 a little over, 2 mollies, a large pleco, some neons and ghost shrimp 5? recently the larer of the two puffers has limited movement and one gill is shut while the other goes very fast, there are also instances where he looks like his is coughing or something along those lines. please help with diagnosis and treatment, i dont wanna lose him please hurry
0nitrites
0ammonia
7nitrates
ph 8.1

Try doing a search here for gill flukes.

I would remove the FW fish (pleco, neons) out of that tank & keep raising the SG .002 weekly. Great article on your puffers here in The Library.

i am still raising the salinity and did a search for gill flukes and nothing worth while showed up really thats why im asking

Here is a link to a UK site that is informative.
http://www.fishdoc.co.uk/disease/flukes.htm

how do i go about a salt bath?

Mix up marine salt in a bucket according to instructions on the bag & put the fish in there up to 30 minutes, or until it lookes really stressed.

6 Aug -

i have 2 gsps in this tank along with a convict cichlid, 2 penguin tetras, a ghost knife, and a pleco

You were advised to move the GSPs to another tank or to remove the FW fish. After some discussion:
11 Aug -

convict and other fish besides pleco are gone

Today you post:

2 gsps 1 about an inch 1 a little over, 2 mollies, a large pleco, some neons and ghost shrimp 5?

You never mentioned having Neons or Mollies in this tank before so I will have to assume that you added them today. Plecos, Neons and other FW fish (to include the pleco) do not belong in BW and you should not attempt to keep them in BW--Period. If you insist on not following this advice, you will continue to stress your fish and can expect to see diseases and death in your tank as a result.