The Puffer Forum

We bought our gsp yesterday, he's about 1 inch long. He seemed fine yesterday and happily ate the snails i gave him, seemed very active buzzing around the tank. Today is a different story, he's just sitting on the bottom, he wouldn't eat the frozen blood worm i put in and i'm really worried. I lost one of my dwarf puffers this morning and i treated both tanks with flubenol, could this be a reaction to that?

I really doubt it, my puffers are more active after flubenol... how was his tank cycled? Sitting on the bottom like that on day two sounds like uncylced tank troubles.

Please don't post the same thing in multiple threads, it's confusing. I have deleted your other thread and moved this to the Hospital.

If the tank is cycled and he has no tankmates, I would just keep an eye out for any symptoms of diseases he may have picked up at the LFS. Besides that he may just be stressed considering he has only been in his new home for a day. Keep the lights off and let him settle in.

If he displays other symptoms, let us know. The FLubenol should make him more active; it did so with my puffer and I've of read similar results with other people's fish after adding Flubenol.

Sorry i just thought this was a more relevant place for it and i wanted to mention the other symptoms that have appeared. My reply to nick seems to have dissapeared so i will just state again that it is a mature tank and todays water test results were ammonia and nitrite 0, nitrate 5.0ppm
He has changed colour, he's gone from being vibrant green all over to being a brownish sludgy type green apart from a patch on top which is still bright. He also appears to have white cottony growths around his mouth and one eye, i think he may have a fungal infection. He did perk up after my last post, he was up and swimming around but he did seem to be twitching a bit, like something was irritating him. he is resting on the bottom now with the lights off.

Here are some pics, i know they're not fantastic but you should be able to make out the white stuff round his mouth and left eye.

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/ ... fer003.jpg
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/ ... fer004.jpg
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/ ... fer006.jpg
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/ ... fer009.jpg

Looks like he got pretty chewed up at the lfs. I would treat with melafix and pimafix, but I'm not sure if it's safe to use them with the flubenol.

Do you have him in freshwater right now? If so I would recommend raising the salinity asap, but no more than .002sg per week.

Whether and when it needs salinity depends on the size, and its hard to tell from those photos but it looks like its still rather small. The GSP article in our Library will list the amount of salinity it needs depending on its size.

I would assume Mela/Pimafix is safe in conjunction with all meds.

he is no more than an inch, maybe a little under.Yes he is in freshwater at the mo, he was in fw at the lfs too. I was planning on waiting couple of weeks and then starting to gradually up the salinity. What do you mean by chewed up? I don't think he'd been attacked at lfs as he didn't look this way when i got him, although he was in a small tank with around 10 others. I have just turned his light on and he is swimming around crashing into things.I haven'g any melafix or pimafix and can't get any until the shop opens. I have got interpet treatments Anti fungus and finrot, anti white spot plus, Anti slime and velvet and methylene blue. i really don't know what to do as have never seen anything like this before.

He is rather mangled. Most of his tail is missing from the looks of those pictures. I have no experience with the things you listed. My vote is to wait till the store opens and buy some melafix/pimafix. Also get some marine salt as well so you can raise the sg a bit.

No his tail is all there. Should i try to return him do you think? He must've brought this infection with him from the store.

It can be a he got a small wound at the shop, and that the stress from the moving gave him some infection in it. A tank with 10 GSPs could have given a lot of fighting. On the other hand, the Flubenol should have helped if its fungus. How much Flubenol did you use? It's important not to under-dose.
When you gave bloodworms, did you thaw them first?
Did you use strips or those fluid tests to test the water?

Is he still bumping into things? I don't like the sound of that. Does he eat at all? I would guess that he is stressed after moving. My GSP was stressed for a week when I brought her home. But on the other hand, she didn't get what she needed in the shop. That's part of the reason why I bought her...

I used a strip, then separate dropper tests to confirm, and yes i did thaw and drain worms first. Anyway, i think i have found the problem. I just called the shop where i bought him and they told me he was in salt water, all their fish are. As you can imagine i am fuming and also kicking myself for not calling sooner. When i bought him i asked the girl if they were in fresh or salt and she said fresh. The guy on the phone said they use table salt! I am now off to buy some marine salt and a hydrometer, suggestions on how to proceed would be hugely appreciated. I just hope the poor little guy will make it.

You will have to raise the salt level very slowly, or you will kill the bacteria in the filter.