The Puffer Forum

Hi, my name is Jennie and I'm rather new to puffers. I have a dwarf puffer at home and I've had a GSP before as well. Unfortunately the other GSP I had (about a year ago, maybe longer) died due to my cleaning service not telling the new person to not spray in my office (I lost a bunch of fish during that year ).

anyways ..

Ever since the other GSP died I had been trying to find another one, to no avail. I actually happened to find some at Wal-mart (of all places .. I didn't even know they carried puffers TBH). Well I couldn't resist. After having waited for a year trying to get 3 of my local fish shops to order me some .. and having still never gotten them to do so .. I bought one from Wal-mart (something I don't normally do).

There were probably 8-10 in the small section .. most of which had little if any tail fins left. I singled out one of the 2 that still had a fair amount of tail (I picked the one that came to greet me as opposed to the one that hid behind the filter tube) and bought it.

Right now he (she?) is in a 10 gallon quarantine tank I keep set up (as I wasn't really expecting to buy a fish that day) and seems to be quite happy. He's swimming fine, eating great, and very friendly. I'm currently trying to cycle one of my larger tanks for him.

My problem is, as much as I've read up on these guys I can't decide if his tail is infected or not. He had most of his tail, but a small section was bitten off at the top. Are puffers like bettas, the re-growth will come in white? Or could this be an infection?

I really don't want to treat the tank if he isn't sick, because I don't want the fish to become immune to antibiotics from treatment when he doesn't need it.

Can you hep me? (I've attached a couple pictures, sorry they aren't very crisp. Hard to take crisp pictures of a subject that refuses to pause, for even a few seconds lol). I need to bring my good camera to work so I can adjust the shutter speed I think lol.

*also* I didn't see a size limitation posted .. if these are too big let me know and I can re-size them for you .









Also, I'm pretty sure he was in completely freshwater, since Wal-mart runs all their tanks on the same filter system. I added 1 TBSP of Marine salt to each gallon that he's in. Is that enough? I only added 1 TBSP instead of 2 in fear of killing my bacteria that was already established in the tank. I did this in hopes that the tank would not re-cycle.

I read on-line, in my quest for puffer knowledge, to add 1-2 TBSP per gallon then up it 1 TBSP every 6 months until I reach full saltwater (7 TBSP per gallon). Are these figures this correct?

Thank in advance for any help, and for listening to me ramble.

Are you gonna be moving him up to 30+ gallons after his QT period? because that's exactly the size he needs, and eventually should be in full marine.

Yea, actually I have a 33 gal acrylic tank that I made for my male bettas a couple years ago. I pulled the partitions out (I had it made into separate 3.5 gal stalls for each betta .. the back section was about 5 gal worth I guess .. even though all of it compiled 33 gal total).

I lost all the fish in that tank because of the cleaning crew spraying disinfectant spray in our offices. They've since stopped using that (heck they pretty much just empty the trash now lol .. under kill I guess is better than over in this case).

Stalls






I'm not new to fish, and I do research them before I buy them. This purchase was just kinda thrown in my face at the time .. I don't just keep my large tanks set up all the time. After not being able to get 3 fish shops to be able to get 1 GSP in over a year. I had about given up.

But, did you have any suggestions on the tail?

Melafix and Primafix should help it heal. And some real clean water quality.


Anyway, get some biospira for your tank once it's all set up so it's instantly cycled. Other cycling stuff is bunk.

Don't up the SG more than 1.002 per week or you'll kill off the beneficial bacteria.

Get a Refractometer off of Ebay. Much more accurate.

If you haven't done so already, I highly recommend Pufferpunk's GSP article in our Library. It will tell you at what size they should be in what salinity.

It does look like the tail is infected. As Pandora said, Melafix and Pimafix should clear it up in no time.

I believe our photo rule for posting images is 800x600 but I'm not positive. Generally, that's a rule of thumb for most sites.

That tail regrowth looks quite normal, btw, my Jillybean's tail looked like that as it regenerated, and she now has a nice, bright, full colored fan.

thanks

I have a bottle of Pimafix (anti-fungal for fresh & saltwater) .. is this pretty much the same as primafix?

I haven't had any sick fish that some aquarium salt wouldn't cure in so long .. I threw most of my meds out because they were so old (I dunno if they expire, but they were 2+ yrs old so I tossed them anyways).

I have been reading in your library .. it's the main reason I joined here. I googled for "puffer care sheet" and came across your site. Very good entries.

I'll get those pics swapped then. I didn't pay attention to what size they were until I had already hosted them .. and unless I needed to I didn't want to have to remove, resize, and resave them on my host. But I'll get them changed. thanks.

Nick wrote:That tail regrowth looks quite normal, btw, my Jillybean's tail looked like that as it regenerated, and she now has a nice, bright, full colored fan.

ah, so they are kinda like bettas then. I've only had bettas with chomped on fins before .. none of my other fish bother fins lol.

I was gonna say, when my ceylons' fins grew back they looked a bit like that as well. Not sure if there's an infection or not, though.

As for the meds mentioned, it is Pimafix. Primafix was probably a typo.

Be careful with it, though. I know most people here have used it (and Melafix) with no problems, but I found that it made my puffs sluggish and lethargic, sometimes almost gasping for air even with a bubbler in there.

SRC wrote: I read on-line, in my quest for puffer knowledge, to add 1-2 TBSP per gallon then up it 1 TBSP every 6 months until I reach full saltwater (7 TBSP per gallon). Are these figures this correct?

You need to measure the salinity yourself using a hydrometer or a refractometer. Refractometers are much more accurate, but my Instant Ocean swing-arm hydrometer is only .001-2 off so if you cannot afford a refractometer right away a good hydrometer can work just as well. And just to be sure (I read you mentioning something about using Aquarium Salt for treating bettas), you are using Marine Salt, right? Aquarium salt is basically table salt and does not contain all of the buffers that marine salt does.

Yea, when I had the other GSP I bought some marine salt from the Fish Shop close to me.

Thanks guys .. when I do his tank cleaning tomorrow I'll try the pimafix.