The Puffer Forum

Hello! I have a 3-4 inch juvenile porcupine puffer and have had him for about a year! Anyways, I was watching him after placing some fake seaweed around in the tank so he'd have more hiding places in his 35 gal (yes, I plan on upsizing when I can to a 75-120 gal tank), and he sucked in water like he was gasping, and then released a cloud of pee? Or was it diarrhea? I have never witnessed him doing this! Maybe it's not a him but a her? Haha, I found it funny because I saw him do it after pondering whether it's a boy or girl.

His water parameters are good, and I just did a water change. Although lately I haven't been too keen on keeping the salinity; it's good now, but maybe fluctuations cause him stress. Also, he does still have a strange half and half belly; I couldn't take a picture, but he occasionally has one side of his belly yellowish with his other side white like it should be.

Anywho, advice would be much appreciated!

What is he eating?

He or she has a varied diet; I feed him a carnivorous mix that contains scallops, clams, mussels, krill, octopus and probably more. The food is thawed and then fed to him, although I used to feed it to him frozen thinking it wouldn't matter. I also feed him gut loaded omega 3 brine shrimp cubes occasionally for the vitamins.

Great diet! I wouldn't worry, puffers do pee.

Okay! You don't think it could've been a release of unfertilized eggs or something? It looked milky in color as it slowly drifted off and diluted, and I heard females will occasionally do that? Lol.

Oh, and what about the split discoloration on the belly thing? Are there any ideas on that?

Sounds like camouflage.