F8 swalowed air
Forum rules
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
- side19
- Green Spotted Puffer
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- Location: Manchester, CT
F8 swalowed air
whats the best way to get air out of a puffer is it swallowed some while it was puffing up? i'm pretty sure mine did. i thought at first that he was just dying, but once i turned off the air pump he's been swimming just fine but he's still upside down and puffed up so i'm assuming he puffed himself up with air. whats the best and safest way to get him to burp out the air?
- side19
- Green Spotted Puffer
- Posts: 464
- Joined: Fri Jul 04, 2008 6:00 pm
- Gender: Male
- My Puffers: 1 Figure Eight Puffer (Tetraodon biocellatus), Ra
1 South American Puffer (Colomesus asellus), Cocha(aka. Dizzy) - Location (country): United States
- Location: Manchester, CT
Re: F8 swalowed air
ok so i tried holding him by the tail under water with his head up and shaking him gently and he's not burping it up. i also tried gently pressing his stomach to make him burp but its not working. he's just getting really pissed off at me and keeps trying to bite me. he's alot better acting than last night (he's swimming strong and putting up a fight when i try to grab him) but he's not getting rid of the air. is there anything else i can try? and how long should i hold him verticle for before i should give up? i could really use some help.
- StormySkiez
- Fahaka Puffer
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Re: F8 swalowed air
Sounds like you did everything right.
Have you read this article on burping?: library/hospital/help-my-puffer-is-air-filled/
If that doesn't help do a search on the forum for burping puffer until perhaps some others can give you advise.
Hopefully you get him feeling better.
Have you read this article on burping?: library/hospital/help-my-puffer-is-air-filled/
If that doesn't help do a search on the forum for burping puffer until perhaps some others can give you advise.
Hopefully you get him feeling better.

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Nick
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Re: F8 swalowed air
Instead of just pressing his stomach, try giving him a slow, gentle squeeze from the tail up while holding him head upward. Don't crush him, just squeeze a bit from all sides, rather than just pressing on the belly.
No matter how magnificent your successes or devastating your failures, the worlds' approximately 5 billion impoverished people could not possibly care less.
- side19
- Green Spotted Puffer
- Posts: 464
- Joined: Fri Jul 04, 2008 6:00 pm
- Gender: Male
- My Puffers: 1 Figure Eight Puffer (Tetraodon biocellatus), Ra
1 South American Puffer (Colomesus asellus), Cocha(aka. Dizzy) - Location (country): United States
- Location: Manchester, CT
Re: F8 swalowed air
thanks, i went out to get some more supplies for the tank (namely marine salt) and when i came back he was deflated and lying dead on the bottom of the tank. i'm adding the marine salt to get the SG to where it should be and then i'm letting it actually cycle on its own with the snails in it. i'm going to try and get a new F8 once the tank is truly cycled this time. i just hope i can do better next time. thanks for the help everyone
- StormySkiez
- Fahaka Puffer
- Posts: 679
- Joined: Sun Nov 11, 2007 9:00 am
- My Puffers: 55G 2- 1 3/4 inch GSP's ~Bud AKA Jaws and Puff~
- Location: USA~TN
Re: F8 swalowed air
Aww I'm sorry
.

55g-2 green spotted puffers 1 year old Nov 08!
20g-5 leopard danio,4 whiteskirt tetras, amanos, nerita snails, 2 neon tetras
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Re: F8 swalowed air
So sorry to hear that!
A tank can't just "cycle on it's own", with or without snails. Be sure to read the Fishles Cycling article in our Library & be sure to remove the snails before you add ammonia.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
