Spotted Puffer turning black

[TheDee7916]

Clamped fins and darker colors almost always indicate illness or stress in a lot of brackish puffers. I've personally never really seen puffers turn black from colder temps, but then again I haven't really had to deal with major temperature swings in a while. I would recommend gradually raising salinity and temperature; GSPs tend to fare better health-wise in salt levels of around 1.015 SG in my experience, especially as they age. What sort of hygrometer do you use? Hygrometers tend to be somewhat hit-or-miss, and oftentimes different products will display different salinity levels for the same water. I've used refractometers, and although they're a bit confusing and delicate, they seem to be more consistent in their readings. Have to agree with the others that it might be a nitrate issue; from what I can see, there appears to be some decaying plant matter. Stepping up water change efforts might help. Test strips can expire or get contaminated; might be best to check water params a different way. If nothing seems to improve within a couple weeks, try medicating for parasites.

Hahaha my husband has a refractometer for his beer supplies so I joked I was going to steal it from him to check.

 

[TheDee7916]

Thank you all for your thoughts! I am going to recheck parameters tonight and do a deep clean to try to get this algae off the walls of the tank with a little more gusto than I have been doing. I got a new heater, so that is headed in, and I'm going to do a water change and increase salinity. Does anyone have recommendations on parasite treatments just to cover all my basis in case I do not see a massive change?

 

[The Morning]

I personally would hold off on chemical treatments until water is handled. Medications can cause further stress on the fish. While not guaranteed if parasitic in nature I would think the other puffer would be showing symptoms as well. I only want to use medication as a last resort especially when unsure what the root cause is.

 

[TheDee7916]

I personally would hold off on chemical treatments until water is handled. Medications can cause further stress on the fish. While not guaranteed if parasitic in nature I would think the other puffer would be showing symptoms as well. I only want to use medication as a last resort especially when unsure what the root cause is.

That makes sense. Well, I deep cleaned the the tank of the lovely algae that has been plaguing the walls. New water has a higher salinity, so we will be watching that. I did a >50% water change, aaaaand finally added in a new heater. to fix the water temp problem. Fingers are crossed!

 

[The Morning]

Nice hope it turns around for the fish. Good luck and keep us updated.

 

[TheDee7916]

So in a startling turn of events - the healthy looking puff passed away sometime between breakfast and lunch. I did inspect it and there was 1 white dot on his back...not what I traditionally saw with ich, but maybe?
The original black puffer is still alive, but still black. Parameters are:
Salinity = 1.010
Temp = 79-80
GH = 180
KH = 0-40
Ph = 7.5
No2 = 0
No3 = 0-20
Ammonia = 0.5

Surviving puff below...he's looking a little less dead black, which is good, but have no idea why the other one passed!

 

[tlindsey]

So in a startling turn of events - the healthy looking puff passed away sometime between breakfast and lunch. I did inspect it and there was 1 white dot on his back...not what I traditionally saw with ich, but maybe?
The original black puffer is still alive, but still black. Parameters are:
Salinity = 1.010
Temp = 79-80
GH = 180
KH = 0-40
Ph = 7.5
No2 = 0
No3 = 0-20
Ammonia = 0.5

Surviving puff below...he's looking a little less dead black, which is good, but have no idea why the other one passed!View attachment 1509164

Sorry for your loss.

 

[Deadeye]

Sorry for the loss.
0.5 ammonia is a problem - api naturally misreads in salt, but even then that’s high.

 

[Joshuakahan]

Hello all! This is my first post...I've been having a lot of problems figuring out what is going on (lots of Googling and forum searching to no avail) and hoping that someone here can provide some insights.

I have 2 spotted puffer fish -- in 30 gal bowfront tanks (seperate). Have had them since October 2022. One is thriving, the other is turning black. I assumed it was a parameter issue, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Parameters are:
Temp = 80-81F
GH = 180 mg/L
KH = 0-40 mg/L
pH = 7.5-8.0
NO2 = 0
NO3 = 0
Ammonia = 0
Hydrometer Reading = 1.009

Feeding a combo of frozen shrimp and bloodworms, and live ghost shrimp and snails. Feeding every other day.

Water changes are weekly with about 25-50% water changed. Water conditioned with Prime.

The only thing I can think of is parasites, but I'm not sure what it would be or what to treat with. No white spots present, and belly looks skinny not distended. Puffer is eating, though I would say not as much as the other one who is normal coloration and swimming around. Mostly it hangs out either resting in a cave or on a rock, but will swim around (just again, not as active as my other one). At this point, the puffer is fully black, you cannot see any spots, and has been like this for a few weeks as I've tried to figure out what is going on.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated!

From my experience with GSP a 30 isn’t big enough for 2. When they’re being bullied or feel threatened they become darker and hide out in corners or near the bottom. The fact that one is colored nice and the other is muted makes me tho it’s a dominance thing.
You could also try raising the salt level slowly. My GSP always did best in full marine. They were all very active and brightly colored

 

[Maduro]

They were in separate 30gallon tanks. This looks like a water quality issue.