The Puffer Forum

Hi everyone, new to the forum and joined as we are desperate for help please. Firstly the info requested in red:
Ammonia-0, Nitrite-0, Nitrate-5ppm, salinity is kept at 1.006 to 1.010. The tank is 64L (UK based so don't know gallons, sorry) and she is the only inhabitant. She is fed every other day on mixed seafood so prawns, mussels, squid etc and once a week she gets a few small snails that we cultivate in our other freshwater tank. Been with us now for around two and a half years and is probably two inches long, maybe a little less. Also we have no idea if "she" is actually a she or not but we liked the name Dotty so have always referred to her as she!
So for the past few days we have noticed a change in her behaviour, she has been hiding away much more than usual and has become quite shy. She also appears to be a bit disoriented and bumps into things. At first we thought she may have somehow gone blind but she can definitely see. She is also swimming strangely with her head facing the bottom sometimes almost vertical always head down and swimming in circles ...almost like a dog does when chasing their tail. Her colouring has always been amazingly bright but she seems to have faded and is looking quite washed out and much more grey in colour this morning when I checked in her she was just still on the bottom..... I thought she had gone but she did start to swim a little as she saw me in the room. We are so worried and have no idea what could be wrong....does anyone have any advice please? Thankyou so much

Your poor puffer is stunted! Any way you can upgrade?
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Hi thanks for your reply!

Apparently my grasp of inches is not great.... she was by the glass earlier and a quick measure puts her closer to 3 1/2 inches. She seems a little better now but still swimming oddly.

Sorry, to answer your question we are waiting to upgrade the problem being we are due to move home in the next few months so were holding off to avoid two tank moves. Would you advise upgrading anyway or will a couple of months in current home be ok for her?

Dotty is a cute name for a spotted fish!
Please tell me more about your water change schedule. What test kits are you using?

Haha thankyou! Water changes are done weekly and we change around 40-50% we use the API test kit...the liquid one. We were advised to use the freshwater kit for testing brackish water rather than the saltwater kit, although of course if this is incorrect we would purchase a saltwater test kit....not sure if anyone can advise on this?
She seems much better this morning, she is swimming around and exploring again as she did before. Her colouring is also better although she still appears a bit grey looking and her tummy isn't fully white as it normally is.
I'm wondering if she maybe took a bump at some point? She tends to have moments where she zooms around the tank at speed so could it be that she maybe hit one of the rocks a little hard?

So glad she's feeling better! I would think in a tank that small, she could be sulking or like you said, bumped into the tank, looking for more room. It really doesn't matter which test kit you use but I do hope whenever you upgrade her, you make it SW eventually. You could actually set it up as full SW & drip-acclimate her to it.

Yes we plan to move to full marine once upgraded. So in your opinion, would it be better to upgrade now or wait until we are moved? We thought that it seemed pointless upgrading to a much larger tank and then have to break it all down again for a house move....but if she needs it urgently the funds are there saved to purchase everything we need so it is doable.
She seems brighter again today.....coming to say hello and swimming out in the open much more normally so I'm hoping that whatever happened was temporary

How many months before you move?

Not sure....we are viewing places and as soon as we find something we're ready to go....so it could be as soon as a month but maybe more depending on how quickly we find somewhere. That's why we have been holding off on the upgrade, until we find a long term place.

Although the puffer should have been upgraded years ago, I guess, as long as you keep doing lots of WC, a few more months might not hurt.

Thanks again, she seems to be improving allbeit slowly, she's definitely getting better

She will be upgraded as soon as we find a place and in the meantime we will carry on being super vigilant with WC

Just a quick update.....Dotty seems almost back to normal now....good colouring, swimming normally and generally seeming happier. Finding a place is taking longer than expected sadly so we have decided to do her upsize now rather than waiting. Her new 240l home is now on order and will be here next week so she will be moving home before we do lol
Thanks again for your advice!!

Good news!