Why is my green spotted puffer fish swimming around crazy?

Question

I just bought two green spotted puffer fish from Wal-mart. I realize that they're barick fish so they need both fresh and salt water. I just changed them out of my bigger tank because I have guppies in the other one. Anyway, now they're swimming around crazy? Could this possibly mean that they're dying? Or is there something I can do to correct this?

Answer 1

IThe previous answer is correct - brackish is somewhere between fresh and sea water. Green spotted puffers will tolerate freshwater for a short time, but their tank should have some salt added. As adults, they'll need to have almost marine-strength saltwater to survive. You should try to match the salinity in which they've been kept, then gradually add 2 tablespoons of salt to the tank weekly to bring it up to the correct level.

If you just added them to the tank, they may just be checking out the new environment and may settle down in a while.

Puffers are also sensitive to ammonia and nitrite, so if the new tank water isn't of good quality, they might be reacting to that. You may also have a different pH than what they're used to. Test these parameters to be sure. If the tank is newly set up, you may run into ammonia and nitrite problems within a week and will need to do frequent water changes to keep the levels in check.

As they get older, you may not ne able to keep them in the same tank - puffers are territiorial and they will become more aggressive as they mature. Each should have a tank about 30 gallons or more.

Answer 2

It is not so much that they need both fresh and salt water, they need brackish water which is between .5 and 30 parts per thousand. I recommend for that type of puffer around one heaping teaspoon per 5 gallons of water.

Bear in mind that puffers are territorial, if they are not in a big enough tank than you may just be stressing them out. Puffers are very personable and active fish, if they are healthy then they will be bright colored and very inquizative, if they are sick, they will loose their vibrance and become lethargic, not eat, or they may spaz.

They should be fed twice a day and should be in no less than ten gallons per fish with plenty of hiding spaces. They will nip each others fins and torture one another to death if they are not given sufficient space.

Make sure their water is in the right proportions, and make sure that they are eating well. Other than that as long as there is no apparent sign of disease, you have nothing to worry about.

Good Luck

p.s. Wal-mart is a BAD place to get fish, they rarely take care of them right, and most of the time they have weird diseases.