GSP spots fading?

stellablu

stellablu

AC Members
Nov 10, 2004
136
0
0
45
Port St. Lucie, FL
www.livejournal.com
I'm thinking something is up with one of my GSP's, Cerebus. Yesterday was my "skip" day with feeding; however, today Cerebus didn't go crazy over the food like usual. In fact, he just hung out and swam around as the other fish went insane gorging themselves. The day before I did give him two small snails, but today he won't go for them.

His color on his back is a bit paler than usual, but the most obvious change (at least to my magnifying glass eyes) is that his spots are fading. He doesn't have any stress marking on his belly. He isn't thin. His eyes aren't cloudy.

He seems to be grinding his teeth also.

I checked all my levels. Everything is at 0, except my nitrates which are around 20. My SG is 1.005-6. I changed the water yesterday, but I'm planning on changing the water again tomorrow by about 35% or so just to be safe. I used a bit of Melafix.

Any ideas?
 
Last edited:
Well I always noticed my Puffers would be dark somedays and quite pale other days. My Dwarf puffers would be very light coloured until they were stressed then they would turn almost jet black. But it seems to be the opposite with my GSP they would be nicely coloured then when they were stressed they would fade to almost no spots at all but they will be darker and lighter from day to day.
 
Yeah he sounds quite stressed for sure, Is he in with any other fish?

Edit:
Sorry I just read your sig and it says he is in with another puffer and a BBG. Are the two puffers getting along okay? they can get irritated very easily.

Have you noticed them not "hanging" out with eachother anything like that?

Have you changed his food lately to a different brand name or to a different type of food, anything like that?

There are so many thing it could be if there arent any physical signs of illness or disease. Other than the fading of course. I dont really know where to start.
 
Last edited:
Labont865 The puffers are getting along fine. They usually hang out and pair up together. Cerebus has been hiding a lot more often these past few days though. No aggressiveness there. The BBG does his own thing and hovers throughout the tank. Everyone gets along. No bullying.

I haven't changed foods lately and he has been getting a variety.

What is the deal with lockjaw? His jaw seems to be protruding slightly and he's "grinding" or "chattering" his teeth constantly. I'm thinking more and more that there is our problem right there. Does anyone have directions for puffer dentistry? The first day I got him home I realized his teeth were a big more grown than Barlow my older puffer. In fact, I had to tell the LFS how to take care of the puffers...everything from snails to SG to temperatures. Of course they aren't set-up to care for them, but they "did the best" they could.

Pufferpunk I posted them in the original post. I'm reading all 0's except about 20 for nitrates. My SG is 1.005-06.
 
Last edited:
How big are they and in what size tank? It sounds odd that all of a sudden he is hiding more often. Do you see anything wrong on his body (ich, bite marks, anything out of the ordinary)? Also what all foods do you feed? He could be getting bored kinda like we would get bored if we ate the same thing day after day. Two days isn't long at all for a puff to go without food. They can go up to a few weeks without food in the wild. If you are really worried try feeding live foods like live brine shrimp. That always perks a puffs interest. Anyway, hope this helps and hope he gets better!
 
Yeah maybe try giving him some food to chase!

I always had one or two guppies in with mine and they loved to have a little live snack every now and then!

It is really wierd that he is grinding his teeth and chattering them.

No recent battles eh! its wierd!

I dunno what to tell you!

I will do a search and see if I can find anything to go along with those symptoms.
 
I am not sure of a disease name but here are symptoms, tell me if they are similar to your fish?

swollen face and lips
Gasping
sucked in and cloudy eyes
bumping into things
not eating
sitting with his chin on the bottom with rear end slightly upwards
sluggishness
anti social

I am not sure of the illness name but a possible treatment is Maracyn and or maracyn 2 for no longer than 10 days. Also try seeing if he will eat live foods like ghost shrimp or guppies. If he does eat it then take some of whatever he ate and feed it some food soaked in a liquid vitamin suppliment preferably with a fairly high spirulina content. then feed them to your puffer. If he wont eat you may have to resort to force feeding him. which sucks and can be a little tricky with puffers teeth and all but worth it if it works. If none of this work I really dont know what else to do! But it cant hurt to try

here is a link to a conversation that sounds similar too http://www.wetwebmedia.com/pufferdisfaqs.htm
Scroll down to a convo titled "sick dogface puffer" the next three or four convos all have similarities to what you are describing

Hope this helps
 
Mono They are in a long 29g and each puffer is just at 1 1/2 inch. Nothing is wrong with his body, in fact, his spots aren't even faded any longer. His eyes are clear. Fins are perfect.

I feed them a variety depending on what I grab that day...live brine shrimp, frozen brine shrimp, live gut fed ghost shrimp (some live in tank), snails of course, frozen seafood or greens mix cubes, mussels, the occasional live clawless crab or crayfish, pieces of crab claw from the market, tubifex worms (the BBG likes them sometimes so the puffers pick at the cube from time to time), and I think that is it. I definitely get a variety in and give them crunchies. As far as guppies, I have a few in the tank that they've become accustomed to and leave alone. In fact, now the guppies are more of a pest to me than help haha. I also had a few people jump down my throat about feeding the puffers guppies (it wasn't an everyday thing, just the occasional pick off, ya know?).

I figured that two days without interest in food was a huge deal because puffers usually CONSTANTLY beg for food, and he just swims right pass it. Even the live brine shrimp.

Labont Thank you so much for looking up that information for me! I couldn't find anything. He has four of those eight symptoms (he had five, but he's not longer resting on the bottom like that) but I guess it wouldn't hurt to treat him with that medicine, right? Better to be safe than sorry.

I thought I would try to clip his teeth last night. So I got out a brine net and scooped him up and held him gently in a washcloth still in the water. He croaked and began to puff up. I read somewhere that even though puffing up is bad, when you are trying to clip their teeth it gives you a wider mouth to work with. I don't know who said that, but boy were they wrong. He lockjawed on me!! I couldn't even get him to open his little mouth. So I gave up. I put him back in the water and made sure he unpuffed then let him go. He kicked up a storm after I released him.

I'll go find some Maracyn or Maracyn 2 today. Wish me luck!
(And thanks a million, again!)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom