The Puffer Forum

Hi all,

I popped into a LFS yesterday. They had 5 twin spot puffers split between two of those tiny tanks that shops normally keep siamese fighters in (probably 10 litres max!). 2 in one and 3 in the other. about 3 inches each.

I spoke to the person at the shop and they admitted that ordering them was a mistake, they've had them in for 5 months but nobody would buy them. They have attacked each other (obviously) hence being split between 2 tanks.

They didn't look in great health and not overly happy. He said he'd be delighted to give them to a good home and would give them to me for free.

I took them right away, lucky I have a 200l already set up with nothing in it that I set up last week. I know this is not big enough for 5 so I plan to set up another 200L and a 100L asap (hopefully even this weekend). I figure with enough hiding, 2 can go in a 200L?

The stress of moving them didn't do them very good as already weren't in good health.

I released them last night, kept the lights off in my fish room. I checked on them this morning, most of them were lying on the bottom curled around not looking happy. 1 or 2 of them were swimming around.

Other important details are, one of them has his bottom lip bitten off in what looks like a relatively recent injury. The others don't look particularly attacked (though i understand they all had wounds in the past 5 months), though they don't look in great conditions.

My plan of action:

1) 10% water changes daily
2) I started dosing with melafix straight away.
3) The shop mentioned they have been eating bloodworms, but from looking at the tank they were in there was a lot of uneaten bloodworms, some of which were likely old. I plan to get some live shrimp ASAP and put some in the tank, that way they have a food source that wont turn into ammonia if it is uneaten and I feel like chasing some live food might 'cheer them up'
4) I am considering adding API Aquarium Salt - this is meant to be good for their health - has anybody used this?

I really hope they pull through the first few days/week, if I can get them through that then hopefully they'll last well. At the moment they are in very poor shape

If anybody has any tips on what I can do to maximise there chance of survival through the next few days please let me know.

You cannot keep even 2 of them together, so I hope you have 5 tanks!
Yes, 1 tbsp salt/10g will help. Table salt is fine.

One of my most docile schoutedeni puffers is itchy, trying to rub up against plants and nipping at his tankmates, and flying away as if nipped when there is no one near him. I had already dosed the tank with melafix on Friday to try to head off a possible bacterial infection since some of the puffers looked like they might have damage from scraping against something. I'm wondering if it might be a good idea to add salt to the tank, too, just in case this itchiness is an early sign of ich? Can adding 1 tbsp of salt per 10g do any harm? Other tankmates are upside down catfish and oneline tetras.

Yes, add salt and do some large water changes.