The Puffer Forum

How the heck do you hold his tail with a net? Our puffer is 11-12in long. He’s huge! His tail is quite slimy, can barely hold with fingers without his slipping through fingers. Is it possible he has a broken bone that is causing the bulge? He can’t inflate for some reason. We’ve noticed now the bulg...

Also, he won’t eat. We tried hand feeding him a mussel and he spit it out. Also tried feeding him a skinned pea and he spit that out too. Any ideas how to give him a pea? Thought about thawing and skinning it and mushing it with some tank water and then feeding that to him with a syringe? Is it poss...

He didn’t have him by the tail. He cupped him in his hands and shook him side to side. Shaking him by the tail won’t break anything?

My husband just tried giving him some good shakes but, didn’t work. Puffer just got mad and tried to bite my husband. He never tried to inflate either. He’s breathing pretty heavy now so, going to leave him alone for the rest of the night. We did do a 50% water change tonight and added epsom salt in...

We’ll try shaking him hard. Would a tumor move from side to side though? The lump moves as he moves. If he’s laying on his left side, the lump is on his right side and vice versa. The lump is always on the side that is facing up. I’d attach a picture but, I’m not sure how to do that as I’m new to th...

He didn’t shake him hard. He basically moved him from side to side in the water in short strokes. Just enough to give him some movement to try to work the bubble out. He tried feeding him a mussel last night too and puffer took a bite and spit it out. Then tried feeding him a pea and puffer spit tha...

My husband has been trying to burp him for 2 days with no change :( He’s tried gently massaging his belly while holding him upright and tried shaking him gently while holding him upright (something someone recommended) and nothing has worked. Not sure if he’s not doing it right or long enough. How l...

We have a Fahaka Puffer who is about 6-7 yrs old. About a week and a half ago, my husband found him laying on his side on the bottom of the tank and he wasn’t moving. We watched him for a while and when he tries to swim, he rolls around and doesn’t swim normally at all. All he does is lay there :( W...