DP with swollen belly

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
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Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.

1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.

2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.

3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)

4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.

5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.

We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.

While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.

Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
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kei
Puffer Fry
Posts: 9
Joined: Fri Nov 06, 2015 4:42 pm
Gender: Female
My Puffers: 3 DPs; Big Boss ( BB ), Glenn and Monty
Location (country): Scotland, UK

DP with swollen belly

Post by kei »

After browsing through the other threads on the forum it seems that puffers with swollen tummies are quite a common issue, so it's just to see if anyone can help identify what's wrong with my boy!
I've noticed it the past few days that one of my DPs tummies is significantly rounder than the other two, almost like he's eaten a meal and then some. I normally feed them some bloodworm in the morning and night, but missed their morning feedings these past few days that I've been running late to uni. I always assumed that the roundness was from that, but I think it's safe to assume that it's not seeing as I've only been feeding them in the evenings.
Apologies that I don't have the exact water parameters as I tested a good few weeks ago now and I moved them to their new tank this week, but everything was fine and well. It'll be a few more days till I get my new test kit in so I won't have anything new until then, but I brought everything over from their old tank and topped up with conditioned water. My water conditioner is 'Aquarian Tropical Water Conditioner' and I add some easy-life provito and easycarbo for the plants with the weekly water changes; I normally change about 20-30% of the water, because their old tank was slightly smaller at about 28L. Their new tank is 32.
The aquarium has been set up for 8 1/2 months now, cycled for a month or two before I got them, and I don't know but I think Monty has always had a bit of a swollen tummy? When they were still maturing I thought he might've been a female before the male markings showed up, but it's never been anything severe. He still eats fine and poops okay so I don't think it's constipation.
Pictures are far from the best quality, but they show how round his belly is :(
Image
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I noticed as well today that there's a tiny red dot in front of one of his fins, though it might just be a piece of worm or something stuck to him and me worrying for no reason, but better to be safe than sorry!
Image
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Boku88
Puffer Fry
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri Nov 06, 2015 11:56 am
Gender: Male
My Puffers: Figure 8 Puffers, Green Spotted Puffers and Dwarf Puffers
Location (country): Malaysia

Re: DP with swollen belly

Post by Boku88 »

Hmmm, could be a fat puffer? Try observing him (looks like a male) and see if he does poop. It terms of roundness your ouffers look fine. Just monitor for any changes in behaviour and whether it is feeding normally.
User avatar
Boku88
Puffer Fry
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri Nov 06, 2015 11:56 am
Gender: Male
My Puffers: Figure 8 Puffers, Green Spotted Puffers and Dwarf Puffers
Location (country): Malaysia

Re: DP with swollen belly

Post by Boku88 »

Oh silly me, I missed out the part in which you referred him as "my boy".
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