The Puffer Forum

Generally, wild-caught fish that are not housed in captivity for long are not portly. I wonder if something else is wrong with him? Can you post a pic? Wild-caught fish are used to eating live foods. Start with a fiddler crab or gut-loaded ghost shrimp. When I say portly, I mean stocky. He is not s...

I received a dogface puffer 5 days ago who is about 1 year old caught from the wild and is very portly (lots of body fat) for a dogface. However, I cannot get him to take any food. He acts and swims around normally, but puts his nose up to any food I offer. I have tried the following multiple times:...

I have a 120G FOWLR tank and I have a baby porcupine puffer fish and want to know if I should introduce a Dog Face puffer fish of similar size (4 inches or so). I have heard that it is best to limit each tank to one puffer and I have also heard they would be fine together.. Need some advice. Good Ad...

I need your advice on a dogface puffer. I would like to purchase one, but I am a bit concerned about their teeth. I have other puffers and I do not want to get myself into a situation where I am likely to have to cut down or shave his teeth. My questions is for current dogface puffer owners and what...

I would ask the LFS what they were feeding the puffer and how long they had it. When I purchase a fish that has not been at the LFS for very long, I purchase it and let it stay at the LFS for 7 to 10 days and ask them to feed it specific things or I find out exactly what they are feeding so when I g...

I believe he/she is a Diodon holocanthus aka "Spiny Puffer". I have attached a picture for identification.

I want to try shelled food, but not sure what a small puffer like this eats or where to get it. I have a flame angel, lawnmower blenny, clown percula, and a somewhat blind picasso trigger. The fish are all about 2 inches long except for the picasso and blenny. The picasso is about 3 inches and the b...

I have a small spiny puffer that I acquired a week ago. I need to know first if I should concern myself about his/her teeth growing too much. I know some puffers are prone to getting exceptionally large teeth that may require trimming at times depending upon the diet. I am feeding him frozen krill a...

I have two puffers. The first is a valentini puffer that I have had for two years and recently has sprouted very large buck teeth. The teeth were so big he could not eat much any more. The valentini is small, maybe 2 inches. He has always been on a soft food diet as he shares the tank with a 6 other...

Your water temperature definately could have contributed to the ich and must be raised to 78 degrees immediately. Treat with medication, as well as try garlic extract that can be purchased at local fish store. You may also want to check ph to be sure it is 8.2, ammonia is 0, nitrite is 0, nitrate le...

Sorry about your losses! Chances are it's either (1) stirred up hypoxic pocket (bacteria pocket) (2) Low PH killed them But I don't think it's one. The low ph wouldn't do it but a PH swing would have. A valentini would not release poison into the tank, they are only poisonous when digested, and can...

Nick wrote:Any chance you forgot to dechlorinate on that water change? It will whiten dead fish, and takes a few hours to do serious damage.

No chance whatsoever. I always dechlorinate and it was only 5 gallons in a 44 gallon tank, but definately dechlorinated.

bonnie3188 wrote:IMO most fish will look very white when they are dead.

Possibility the Valentini bought in a disease? Did you QT him?

The Valentini came in with the rest of the fish at the same time approximately 11 months ago - no new fish were introduced.

Every morning when I wake up my saltwater fish they are all up at the top waiting for breakfast. On Christmas morning I woke them up and nobody came to breakfast - not a sole showed up. This never happended before. I looked around and spotted a dead damsel. I looked harder and in the castle a dead D...