Green Spotted Puffer Spinning

[Venetia]

A few days ago I was given a very small
GSP. My friend who had him had bought him at walmart a couple weeks ago and kept
him in a 2 gallon freshwater aquarium by himself. No water changes. He started
swimming upside down and then started spinning. She was going to flush him since
it was distressing her kids. I told her to give him to me. I have gradually
gotten him into brackish water with live bacteria in his own 10 gallon tank. He
was not eating well when I got him, but is eating now. I'm feeding him
bloodworms dried and frozen. Baby shrimp and brine shrimp frozen. he has a bend
and is still spinning although not quite as bad. He also has little black
smudges all over his belly. I would really like to save this little guy. Is
there anything else I can do for him? Does he need medication?"[/SIZE]

 

[f8fan]

Well, eating is a great sign *thumbsups. And what you are feeding him is pretty good, although he will need more crunchy stuff if/when he survives, as well as a much larger tank, but let's worry about what he's going through currently.
I don't have any GSPs but I have read a little about them. The black smudges on his belly isn't a good sign. How long did you acclimate him to brackish - and what's the current salinity/Specific Gravity of his water?
Puffers are wild caught fish so often they get to the LFS with internal parasites. That - coupled with the fact that he was in a 2 gallon FW tank for two weeks with no water changes is pretty much a yucky start in life for him. He was probably suffering ammonia poisoning, gosh, even if the other person did cycle the 3 gallon he was previously in, to go two weeks without a water change in a tank that small is a recipe for disaster.

Limi and Brack-Man are awesome GSP keepers so I bet they will have more to add to this, but I would make sure to keep up on the water changes, pre-mix the marine salt prior to adding it to the tank, and yeah, I'd treat his food with an anti-parasitic medication Discomed by Aquatronics.

Also - here's some reading on GSPs:
Green Spotted Puffer Profile

Good luck! Keep us posted....

 

[Venetia]

The selinity is 1.01. I started fresh 4 days ago and through daily water changes gradualy added the salt. I do have 3 little plant snails in there, but he hasn't touched those. I went to walmart last night to see the GSP's and they are all in about the same shape as him or worse. He also has a little film on his back.

 

[f8fan]

Well, being that it is young (I'm assuming, since he is small, how large is he?) that salinity should be fine for the time being. I'd keep up the water changes to make sure he has nice clean water and definitely buy some Discomed to soak his food in to get rid of any internal parasites he may have. I wouldn't "up" the salinity any more for the time being, your current salinity is fine and you don't need to stress the little guy out any more than he is. Once he is on the road to recovery then you could worry about making his SG higher. Do you have test kits to measure the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate? If so, what are those reading?

Also - there is a great puffer forum www.pufferforum.com where you could get some more information on. Not that MFT isn't the #1 fish forum out there, but if you are looking for a quick response from experienced GSP keepers then, they will be able to help you, as well as they have a lot of stickies/articles that may be of use for you.

Sorry I don't know more about GSPs . I really hope your little guy makes it!!

 

[Venetia]

He is about an inch. All reading's are at 0 right now. I did go through the puffer forum yesterday and I couldn't find any causes other than water quality and nothing that fit his condition. It's the bend by his tail and the spinning that really bother me. I just can't find anything about it. I have kept south american's for years and know quite a bit about those. This doesn't seem like a badder issue, but I don't know. I've never had experience with brackish or salt water fish.
I have posted at a couple fish sites, but your the first responce I've gotten.

 

[MOsborne05]

You used marine salt to make the brackish water right? Hopefully you know this, but I just wanted to make sure.

I would definitely suggest treating for internal parasites just in case. Jungle makes a product that you feed to them, it is a little pellet that they eat.

I'm not sure about the spinning, but the dark belly means that he is stressed. Hopefully in a few days he will feel more at home and his belly will turn white. Keep up on water changes though because a 10 gallon doesn't give you much room for error since gsp's are so messy. Also, gsp's like to explore so make sure the tank is heavily decorated with plants/rocks/driftwood. Puffers also like to 'ride' on bubble walls, so you might want to get one for the tank.

Puffers are little piggies and they like variety in their diet, so maybe pick him up some ghost shrimp. Being able to hunt down his own food might brighten him up a little. Freeze-dried baby shrimp is good too, my puffs loved those! You can also feed him stuff like mussels that you get at the grocery store.

Good luck and keep us posted!

 

[Venetia]

Yes, I used instant ocean. My friend had some tropical salt in his tank but I figured that wasn't worth mentioning. I have an airstone in there and he has been enjoying it. Unfortuanatly he comes spinning off it bumping into his deco. I do have a 30 gallon available but it isn't set up brackish yet. And I kind of want to wait till I see if he's going to live. I just put in some freeze dried baby shrimp I have for my blood parrots, he worked his way to the top and is now making little smacking sounds as he grabs them.
Do you know the name of the jungle product? I'm planning a trip to petco in a little while. I asked them the other day, but they have no knowledge of GSP's.

 

[MOsborne05]

Yep, its Jungle anti-parasite medicated fish food for internal parasites
Medicated Aquarium Fish Food: Jungle Medicated Fish Foods

 

[Limi310]

I would start with some Melafix and Pimafix - take carbon out of the filter.
Black spots on belly, erratic swimming and a 'film' are not good signs. Most likely bacterial or fungal infection.
Keep him as stress-free as possible - stress can further weaken their immune system.
Not sure about the bend...can you get a picture of it?

 

[MissFishy]

Walmart really needs to stop selling fish. I was horrified the last time I was in there and happened to browse their fish "selection." Bettas in an inch of dirty water. Some lady was going through the tanks and picking out the dead ones (there were a LOT of them). I was absolutely livid when she started picking out the ones that weren't completely dead yet and putting those in the "dead fish bag" as well. She tied up the bag with about 20 dead fish and a couple half dead ones and just laid it in the sink. I was SO tempted to grab the bag and fish out those poor not dead fish (some didn't look so bad off, savable possibly anyways), but didn't...I wouldn't have been able to get them out of the store without paying for them I don't think. Everytime I see all those fish, I just want to take all of them away from there and give them a good home...but I know that would just up their profit margin on fish, so I try to resist the urge.

 

[Venetia]

Sorry, it took me awhile to figure out how to post photo's. Hope this works. I wasn't able to get meds for him yet, but I plan to go to premiem aquatics tomorrow.

 

[Limi310]

Hard to tell on the tail...however his belly looks sunken. Definitely want to treat him with an anti-parasite food and get him eating.

 

[Venetia]

I just got home from Premium Aquatics. They said treating him may make him worse at this point. He is eating well. I went ahead and set up the 30 for reef. A friend of mine is bringing me 5 gallons of his esablished reef water and 2 damsels to help cycle. How long till I should move the puffer? They said as long as he's eating he should recover. Just keep up water changes and keep gradually changing him to reef. Does it sound like this guy knows what he's doing?

 

[Limi310]

No.

First off...internal parasites aren't going to go away by themselves. Not certain he has them...but that belly doesn't look very good. Also your puffer is small....still a juvenile. It doesn't need marine conditions until it is an adult.
They may have said that because puffers can be hard to treat because they are sensitive to many medicines due to the fact that they are scaleless. However melafix and pimafix should be safe for the puffer...and may help if he has some kind of infection.

 

[f8fan]

I just read that and was gonna post NO, too! He needs meds for his internal parasites. And the current salinity he is at his fine for him right now, juveniles are born in FW then gradually swim to Brackish, the gradually swim to Marine conditions once they are full grown (years).

 

[Brack-Man]

NO NO NO to the marine/"reef" water yet.... I've had my GSP for over 2 years now and I have just reached the point where his water is full marine conditions.....From the photos I'd say he definitely has IP's (internal parasites), get the Discomed, it works, and soak the frozen bood worms in it and feed him that.
Also go ahead and add some of the Melafix to your tank water as well, I'd do about half of what the recomended dose is for teh fist couple of treatments, and see if it helps him any., if you dont see any changes, stop using it.

Your salinity is fine, but just out of curiousity, whats your pH, it needs to be around 8.0.

EDIT: the spinning is usually a sign of dicomfort...i.e. the IP's

PS....that guy at P.A....needs to be *crazysmil *crazysmil *crazysmil

 

[Venetia]

I'm going to go to petsmart after dinner, and I'll pick up the meds. His breathing is a little labored rigt now. I'm really worried.

 

[Venetia]

What is Discomed and where can I find it?

 

[f8fan]

 

[Limi310]

Discomed is the anti-parasite medicine that you soak food in. It treats internal parasites. I honestly don't know if they sell it at Petsmart. If not, you can get the Jungle product. Others have reported sucess with it. Discomed just seems to be the most highly recommended.
Melafix will help with external issues.

Edit: After some 'googling' it appears that Discomed is no longer available as the company that made it went out of business.