The Puffer Forum

Can anyone tell me what could be causing my blue spotted puffy to suddenly act like he's possessed?! He started a few days ago, swimming around and turning to his side like he was looking for something. Yesterday, when I came home, he swam up and did his usual happy-to-see-me routine and then...swam across the tank like he'd seen a ghost, tail fanned out and almost swimming into a rock. It got worse from there, the same frantic swimming but started doing these freak-outs, almost like throwing himself at the substrate or small rock in the tank, using his tail to throw sand everywhere and the odd side-turning. As "sunset" started he calmed some and did sleep like normal, but here I am watching the tank rise and he is already starting to do it again. Water all checks out, no changes. No new additions to the tank. We did do a small carbon bag in our sump because we realized filter sock accidentally got washed with detergent. Only other change has been the addition of a light; running 2 fluval 59 watts because 1 wasn't enough on our 72 gallon bow (we have full sump, protein skimmer, good flow). Lighting schedule same though, and all else in tank is business as usual. I'm so worried; he's my baby. Any idea what could be wrong? Anything that can be done?

That is a sign of nitrite poisoning. Are your test kits up-to-date? What are the exact parameters?

Thank! We have brand-new (well, 2 weeks old) Salifert tests for everything; also have an ammonia alarm. For a second opinion, we took a sample to our amazing LFS guy and had him test...all good. Thankfully, Puff is his usual self today!! Got up this morning, afraid to look, and there he was - swam to the top l, did his little good morning dance. Sheer relief. All is well in the tank again. Oddly enough our little goby died, so something was definitely going on. We did a small water change, pulled our hammer corals that were struggling and added a grounding prope. Could have been any of that...or none of it. The woes of having a beach in your house.

It's all pretty weird... Glad he's acting normal again. Keep a good eye on him though.

I have been; worse than a new mom with a sick baby. He's had a couple of moments where I wasn't confident that he's 100%, but nothing close to the horrible shape he was in. We have noticed that our clowns are pairing. They've been a little pushy with him...wondering if that's stressing him out. We also replaced dried krill with the meaty, frozen ones. Has anyone ever heard that the dried shrimp can affect them?

I hope you're feeding them more than Krill. It is not a very good diet for them. Go to our library and read the articles on feeding. Lots of great options there!

Funny you mention that...we were mostly; some pieces of Frenzy here and there, but mostly the freeze-dried krill. We also were guilty of over-feeding (he begs so cutely!) and have significantly cut that back. It's made a noticeable difference - he's being his happy, attention-hogging self! Thanks for the direction on feeding, though. I will definitely take a look. I don't ever want to see him that distressed again.

Hopefully someone sees this...apparently I can't figure out how to search and/or post and find what I need. Me again, same Toby Puffer. He's been doing great - really good actually. We went to every other day feeds; frozen krill for him, along with some mysis that the entire tank gets. He was acting like he'd lost some vision - we think from not enough vitamins/nutrients back when we did the freeze-dried krill - so I ordered vita-chem to soak the food in. Tonight, the very first night we have it, we soak his krill in it and fed him. He was fine, ate like normal and, then, BOOM! - he starts swimming on his side acting like he can't swim upright. He then became noticeably puffed (still is) and he's randomly swimming really fast across the front of the tank with his tail fanned. He's not swimming on his side now, but is obviously still not himself and staying low in the tank (although that's not unusual for him). So now what? How do I save him this time? Oh, and parameters are fine - same ol' same ol'...nothing new in the tank, nothing different. Everyone else (all small fish -two clowns, two chromis, one cardinal, one royal gramma, a lawnmower) are fine, corals are fine. His color is great, no spot loss, and tummy is the usual color.

To make it more maddening, I just looked over and he's eating off the rocks like he always does...and now he seems to not be less puffed and able to swim slightly higher in the tank. Haven't seen him get towards the top yet, but here's hoping he does. This fish is going to be the death of me! Could it be a bubble? Gas? Something he'll work all the way out on his own? Is there anything I can do?!

If it's an air bubble, he wouldn't be able to swim--most likely bobbing upside-down at the surface.
library/hospital/help-my-puffer-is-air-filled/

If the parameters are good, the only mistake I see is feeding strictly krill. They MUST have a varied diet.
library/feeding/feeding-your-puffers/

Thanks Pufferpunk! I thought that too; read up on it last night. He wasn't at the top though; almost seemed like he couldn't get to the top. I did try to catch him and see if I could "burp" to help. He went to his hiding spot and I gave up, worried I would do more harm than good if I chased him all over and then man-handled him. He seemed to get somewhat better before we went to bed. I checked the tank periodically through the night, panicking when he wasn't asleep on his usual rock. He slept on the side of the tower - so weird! - and was slower than usual to wake up. I still don't feel like he's himself this morning. His color is good and he isn't struggling to swim. He did seem to puff up a little a couple of times and, while nothing screams illness, he just doesn't seem right. I'm hoping he's okay when we get home this evening, hated leaving for work.

I know we need to add to the diet, just the krill and mysis aren't enough. We tried frozen squid and he turned his nose up at it. We bought snails and those are cruising around the tank untouched. I'm terrified of buying things fresh from a grocery store that could poison him.I suppose I could try frozen clams from the grocery store. Our LFS doesn't have anything other than the usual krill/mysis/squid frozen options. I was hoping the vita-chem would help with that too. One introduction of it, though, and now we're dealing with this. Not sure where to go from here...

If it's good for human consumption, it should be fine for your puffer. Just be sure to freeze to kill off any "nasties" & then defrost in a few drops of fish vitamins & a crushed garlic clove.