problems with a green spotted puffer

[pat]

i have recently got a green spotted puffer in a very well established brackish water tank. he has gotten grayed over, and is definitly not doing very well. does anyone know what they case may be?

 

[Pufferpack]

Hi pat Welcome to the forum

It's hard to say what the trouble is without a little more info. The grey tinge is a definate sign that something is wrong, if the belly is shrunken in and the feces is stringy and opaque it would probably be internal parasites. It could also be caused by amonia or nitrates in the water (puffers are very sensetive), do you have testing kits for the Amonia/nitrates/nitrites? If so what are the readings? What size is the tank and are there any tankmates? You say it's a well established tank so I doubt it's "new tank syndrome". What is the specific gravity of your tank (salt concentration), and what did the lfs keep the little guy in? If they kept him in FW (many do ) or at a lower SG it may be a shock to his system going into your BW tank. How long have you had him?

Sorry for more questions than answers, but hopefully we can help you make the little fella happier.

 

[javier]

Hi pat Welcome to the forum

It's hard to say what the trouble is without a little more info. The grey tinge is a definate sign that something is wrong, if the belly is shrunken in and the feces is stringy and opaque it would probably be internal parasites. It could also be caused by amonia or nitrates in the water (puffers are very sensetive), do you have testing kits for the Amonia/nitrates/nitrites? If so what are the readings? What size is the tank and are there any tankmates? You say it's a well established tank so I doubt it's "new tank syndrome". What is the specific gravity of your tank (salt concentration), and what did the lfs keep the little guy in? If they kept him in FW (many do ) or at a lower SG it may be a shock to his system going into your BW tank. How long have you had him?

Sorry for more questions than answers, but hopefully we can help you make the little fella happier.

I'm having a similar problem with my puffers, the tank is well established. I just got the puffers about 4 days ago. They were in a FW tank and I've put them in a freshwater tank (I plan on making it brackish over the next 2 weeks). They are all very active. Only one of them is grayed over, his belly is not sunken in, in fact it gets noticably bigger when he eats (frozen bloodworms). His feces seem to be very dark in color and thick. I was waiting on the salt becuase I thought it may be a good idea to treat him first, but maybe that's the case??

 

[Pufferpack]

Yup, sounds like he is stressing in the FW. I would start acclimatizing to BW right away. I would get the SG up to around 1.008 over the course of a week or two.

 

[javier]

Yup, sounds like he is stressing in the FW. I would start acclimatizing to BW right away. I would get the SG up to around 1.008 over the course of a week or two.

I think you're right, he is also the bigger of the three so I guess that has something to do with it was well, do you recommend any particular brand of salt?

 

[Pufferpack]

I don't think the brand would matter, as long as it is "Marine" salt