GSP Sleeping on Bottom - Normal?

Roan Art

Roan Art

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Did a search and although I didn't find exactly what I was looking for, I get the impression that it's normal for puffers to sleep on the bottom of the tank or on a rock or something?

Saw little Peabody curled up in a corner in the tank and he looked like he was sleeping, but it still gave me a bit of a startle. He woke up when he realized I was there and began begging for food, so I assume all is well.

Only other fish I've ever seen sleep on the bottom of the tank are my son's orandas, so I just wanna be sure he is fine.

Roan
 
hey Roan i think he's fine, my GSP (i'm assuming that's what you have) always sleeps on the bottom, he will also change to a dark color (wash out) when he's sleeping. all's well.

Coolest little things aren't they???
 
Yes, he's a GSP. They were in such horrible shape at the LFS that I thought he was a full grown FW dwarf puffer. His color was a horrible yellowy-brown. After I brought them home and realized they were BW-->SW, I considered taking them back, but changed my mind. What's one more tank? I already had 2 10g already cycled with fish that I could move anywhere and was going to replace those with 30g+ tanks in March.

Unfortunately one of them just degraded to the point where he was obviously suffering terribly. I euthanized him with clove oil rather than continue trying to save him :(

Peabody seems to be fine. After he woke up, I gave him a small pond snail and a very small "mystery" snail and he gobbled them up.

The pond snails are very easy for him to eat. I mean, I don't think they really help with the teeth issue the way he just chows it down. The other snails in the snail tank, which could be baby Mysteries (they are definitely not MTS, I make sure of that) are much harder for him and he has to work at getting the shell chewed up. I hope this is a good thing?

I DO have some baby Mysteries in another tank and have fed him one of those. They seem to be the same as the ones in the little snail tank.

Long winded :)

Roan
 
Yes, resting on some object (substrate, rock, ornament) in a relatives low current situation to sleep is standard for many puffers, including GSPs. Loss of normal color and pattern is commonly seen during the night, and sometimes during naps as well. Dwarf puffers sesm to prefer bushy plants, but most other puffs get a bit hefty for that.
 
Pond snails are fine. He needs alot more than one. Mine is almost 2" I feed him 10-15 snails at a time (dropped in one by one) If he gets enough of them, it will help keep his teeth filed down.

Kim
 
Thanks guys.

Seriously LittlePuff, his stomach gets HUGE after eating two small snails. Not rounded, but like he ate a basketball -- no, TWO basketballs.

I fed him a small ghost shrimp and I thought he was going to explode. Lemme take a picture of him after he's eaten and then tell me if he's getting enough or not. I really don't want to overfeed the guy.

If anything, maybe I should feed him smaller meals a couple of times a day instead of one huge meal?

Roan
 
A lightly rounded belly is as much as you want to see. If the fish looks like it swallowed a marble, maybe a shooter, that is too much.

Unfortunately, there is no practical way to quantitate snails. Someone say one or two snails - well that might be enough for an adult DP or two juveniles if the snails are the average I see in my tanks. One or two mature common pond snails is a good meal for a juvenile GSP or maybe just one would be better. Go with the fish's profile - it is far easier. That should be back down by the following day.
 
RTR said:
A lightly rounded belly is as much as you want to see. If the fish looks like it swallowed a marble, maybe a shooter, that is too much.
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That's how he looks. Like he swallowed a shooter.

Unfortunately, there is no practical way to quantitate snails. Someone say one or two snails - well that might be enough for an adult DP or two juveniles if the snails are the average I see in my tanks. One or two mature common pond snails is a good meal for a juvenile GSP or maybe just one would be better. Go with the fish's profile - it is far easier. That should be back down by the following day.
Click to expand...
Mine are about half the size of a common pond, usually. One of those and he looks shooter-sized, but it goes away late in the afternoon. Past few days I've been feeding him twice a day, either a piece of small pacifica krill or a small snail.

Today he ate a snail and didn't look stuffed, so I fed him a piece of soaked krill 15 mins later. Then he looked stuffed. Dang if he doesn't look bigger overall today as well.

Roan
 
Believe it or not, they are not as slow-growing as many folks think. That is why I push for folks to house them in a tank which would at least met the minimum for an an adult fish from the beginning. Puffers, like Clown loaches, are very easily stunted.
 
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