my new puffers not doing too well

[Stryker]

My water params are as follows:

ammonia 1mg per litre
nitrite less than 1mg per litre
nitrates around 60mg per litre
temp 79F

my tap water is around 30-40mg per litre to start with! When my LFS has his stock come in I'm going to add an additional small filter with nitrasafe in it.

My puffers are rather lathargic, one is rather grey, sign of stress and none of them are that active.

I would of thought puffers that are bred in captivity would have less issues with nitrates as they are messy fish.... so I'm rather confused as to whats going on. The tank was a long established tank with its inhabitants distributed to my other tanks and my fathers tank. The tank is well planted with plenty of hiding spots.

I did not get these puffers from my usual LFS (stupid mistake I know).

Oh well.

 

[Pufferpack]

Sounds like the water may be the issue. Even tank bread puffers can be extremely sensitive to chemicals, due I believe to being scaleless. Frequent water changes until the readings are at 0 would be my recomendation

 

[ryansfish5g]

Hmmmm mg's.....I am used to ppm, how many ppm ammonia and nitrite would that be?

If your puffers are grey, that is really bad, I would do MelaFix immediately, as well as some water changes. (MelaFix is typically used to treat internal parasites on puffers, they sell it at petsmart or various other fish stores)

Are they eating?

Are these the GSP's in your sig you are talking about? What else is in the tank with them? What size is it (gallons please)? and what is the salinity?

Any more info would be great.

 

[Stryker]

Thanks ryan. I took this over to a puffer forum and it was resolved.

I had gone to a LFS I usually dont use. I asked for dwarf puffers and was sold juvenile GSPs, not only that they were already aclimatised to brackish water!!

I put them in brackish water and all is fine. I lost two mind, but the remaining two are doing just fine. (fingers crossed).

Thanks

 

[CFC]

Another thing is that ammonia and nitrite readings should ALWAYS be 0, if you have a visable reading then your tank is either still cycling or has not matured to a stable level, either way fish like puffers which are sensative to water conditions should not be added.

 

[Pufferpack]

Glad to hear the remaining 2 are doing well.

 

[Stryker]

As everyone talks in parts per million I bought some new testing kit today, liquid based, its brilliant! much better than the tablets.

Anyways I'm on 0 ammonia and nitrites. Nitrates are around 40ppm and thats after a 80% water change today!! With my old test kit I tested my tap water and it read 30-40Mg/litre straight out the tap I may retest with this new kit.

SG is 1.006

The two GSPs are real lively and feeding well.

Not having done salt water tanks before I'm still learning. One interesting point I noticed is for the first week at least my tank seemed to be "buffering" the salt, perhaps substrate and plants were absorbing it? Anyway its much more stable now.

 

[ryansfish5g]

As everyone talks in parts per million I bought some new testing kit today, liquid based, its brilliant! much better than the tablets.

Anyways I'm on 0 ammonia and nitrites. Nitrates are around 40ppm and thats after a 80% water change today!! With my old test kit I tested my tap water and it read 30-40Mg/litre straight out the tap I may retest with this new kit.

SG is 1.006

The two GSPs are real lively and feeding well.

Not having done salt water tanks before I'm still learning. One interesting point I noticed is for the first week at least my tank seemed to be "buffering" the salt, perhaps substrate and plants were absorbing it? Anyway its much more stable now.

I also read/post on the puffer forum, I am glad they could help you.
I could be wrong, but isn't the recommended salinity for GSP's like 1.010-1.015 or something like that??

I try to keep my brackish tank w/ Figure-8 around 1.008, but for awhile it was 1.011 and the puffer was still healthy and happy.

Glad you were able to get the ppm kit, those nitrates do seem pretty high, not sure what you could do about it though.

 

[Pufferpack]

As far as I understand it the GSP's will do well at the lower Sg when still young (maybe first 2 years or so) and then seem to prefer going to higher Sg when mature. If you want to raise the Sg now it won't be a problem for the puffers, but I think anything higher than 1.006 and you won't get any live plants to survive.

 

[Stryker]

Exactly puffer pack, for now while they are less than 2" I'm enjoying the benefits of < 1.008 SG. A fair few plants will work in there, plus I dont have to put them through the transition from FW beneficial bacteria to SW bacteria.

When I buy them larger dwellings I'll then be thinking about setting the new tank up at 1.009 and then raise the GSPs to 1.009 before the move.

Also I've read many accounts from keepers who find a .002 variation (up or down) or so in SG on water changes keeps them healthy. Guess it makes sense as they live in tidal esturies and directly linked water systems.

BTW, in case anyone wonders, I'd of NEVER bought brackish water fish before.... Its tragic what my GSPs were put through but I'm very happy now I do have brackish water fish, esp GSPs.... they and their ecosystem is facinating!

 

[ryansfish5g]

Exactly puffer pack, for now while they are less than 2" I'm enjoying the benefits of < 1.008 SG. A fair few plants will work in there, plus I dont have to put them through the transition from FW beneficial bacteria to SW bacteria.

When I buy them larger dwellings I'll then be thinking about setting the new tank up at 1.009 and then raise the GSPs to 1.009 before the move.

Also I've read many accounts from keepers who find a .002 variation (up or down) or so in SG on water changes keeps them healthy. Guess it makes sense as they live in tidal esturies and directly linked water systems.

BTW, in case anyone wonders, I'd of NEVER bought brackish water fish before.... Its tragic what my GSPs were put through but I'm very happy now I do have brackish water fish, esp GSPs.... they and their ecosystem is facinating!

sounds like a good plan. Good luck with your puffers and post some pics in the pictures section if you get a chance.... I am still trying to get some good shots to post.