Sick GSP?

Creat

I recently got two new Green Spotted Puffers from a Walmart where they had them with guppies.... dont even get me started on that idiocy. But I took them home and I have had them for a week. They looked like they had fin rot and a fungus but when I acclimated them to the brackish water ( SG being 1.008). They were being fed on snails for the first three days. One of them the smaller one took to them and has fattened up quite nicely. But for some reason the larger one would chase them suck them up but wouldnt eat them. I switched them over to Daphnia which the fist took still and the second also started to eat. But the second one seems very thin and not as round as he should be and about an hour after I feed him he goes right back to being super thin. He still looks super thin even when his belly is full. Right now they are being housed together but will soon be separated (as I only had one cycled brackish tank available).The first three are some pictures of him i cant get a good one of his belly because he is still as super active. And the fourth picture is of the first healthy seeming one.


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bettababy

I would suggest moving the thinner fish to a quarantine tank alone to be sure the problem isn't simply dominance of the other fish limiting food intake.
Are there any other symptoms you can list? How much is the thinner fish eating at a time? How often in a day? Have you checked the water parameters other than spg/salinity for the tank they are in? I notice in the photos there is a lot of buildup on the tank glass... that usually happens when water quality is not where it should be. Puffers are very sensitive to water chemistry and if a fish is sick, stressed, weak, that will make it more sensitive.
Can you post readings for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and pH?

coolcar24th

Have you checked the puffer's teeth? If they get too long it wont be able to eat snails. You will need to wear it down ASAP or you might have to cut them yourself, which is a PIA. Try crushing a snail and feeding him using some tweezers. I would also remove the thinner one and put him in a quarantine tank until you can nurse him back to health.

Creat

Unfortunately because I am moving I sent the test kit ahead of me a few days ago but these were the reading from 3 days ago.
Nitrate:~ 15ppm
Nitrite: ~ .1ppm
Ammonia: ~ 0 ppm
pH: ~ 8.5
The algae is from the high concentration of iron in the groundwater here and I haven't cleaned the glass in a while.
The sick puffer is always looking for food and picks at anything. He is not lethargic or slower then the other and takes the Daphnia readily. Other then being thin super thin there are no outward signs. Right behind the pectoral fins he sinks in substantially. He doesn't seemed to get picked on and the only aggression was the first time I fed them after I got them and he was the one nipping the smaller one but I will separate them. I hand feed them three times a day to be sure both of them eat. I will head out to the pet store today to go buy some more snails and see how they respond to them and then check his teeth if he still wont eat them.
Thanks for the help guys I really want both of them to survive :)

bettababy

You may also have a fussy puffer, that is not uncommon. I would add some brine shrimp to its diet. A 10 minute soak of the brine in Zoe (vitamin supplement made by Kent Marine) should also help. Live brine is usually accepted more readily but you can try frozen if thats all you have available.

Once in quarantine I would also suggest deworming that fish, just in case. It is safe to do this as a preventive and won't cause harm. Praziquantil... a product called PraziPro would be the medication you want for this. If you don't have that medication available let me know and I will see if I can find something else safe for the puffer or help show you where to get the Prazi online. Puffers are sensitive to many medications, so please don't just pick something off the store shelf without first checking to be sure the puffer can handle it. Using an unsafe med for the fish can cause death quickly.


These fish look pretty small, can you verify their size for us? A juvenile puffer with overgrown teeth is rare, so please don't be too quick to try to trim teeth. Teeth trimming is not something I suggest be done by someone with no experience in such matters. It is easy to cause more harm than good in that kind of situation. Rock work in the tank should be enough for the fish to trim their beaks naturally by chewing on the rock.

Best of luck to you.

Creat

So the pet store was closed yesterday and I didnt try to trim its teeth. He is only about an 1.2 inches long. I will go out and get some frozen brine shrimp today as well and I will check for PraziPro but if they do not have it what else can I try for dewormer? Thank you so much for the help :)

lorax84

I would also suggest adding brine shrimp to his diet, If you put him in a QT with a sponge filter this is easy but if you have a HOB filter I suggest turning it off when feeding as live brine shrimp tend to go right up the filter if it is on. I also used to feed my puffer freeze dried krill and he loved it.