Should I be concerned about this? Will this kill my fish? Is there anything I can do? I do not know if porcupine puffer fish are capable of digesting shells.
Thank you!!!!
Porcupine Puffer fish swallowed a shell - HELP!!!
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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.
-
sophia1
Porcupine Puffer fish swallowed a shell - HELP!!!
I was told by my local fish store that a good way to keep the teeth plates trimmed of my porcupine puffer is to put some of my frozen krill into the shell and give it to the puffer. I have done this before and it went well, it got all of the food from the shell and left it empty on the ground. When I tried this again tonight the porcupine swallowed the entire shell. It happened yesterday around 5:00 PM, and it is now 11:14 AM the next day, and the puffer still seems fine, although there is a large bulge on its stomach, and it has not regurgitated the shell yet.
Should I be concerned about this? Will this kill my fish? Is there anything I can do? I do not know if porcupine puffer fish are capable of digesting shells.
Thank you!!!!
Should I be concerned about this? Will this kill my fish? Is there anything I can do? I do not know if porcupine puffer fish are capable of digesting shells.
Thank you!!!!
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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: Porcupine Puffer fish swallowed a shell - HELP!!!
I think your porc will be fine. Puffers are know to eat some types of shells at times. Mine have ate whole snails, shell and all. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.
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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Agnate
- Former Staff Member
- Posts: 1203
- Joined: Mon Dec 10, 2007 7:44 pm
- My Puffers: -
1 Abei Puffer [Monotrete Abei]
(Captain Abe) - Location: Ontario, Canada
- Contact:
Re: Porcupine Puffer fish swallowed a shell - HELP!!!
Yeah, it shouldn't have any problems. Puffers eat crustaceans as their main diet. If they were unable to digest the shells, their main diet wouldn't be crustaceans, haha!
However, I was under the impression that porcupine puffers don't have a problem with their beaks growing too long. I heard that they do not have the same teeth as most other puffers (ones that grow constantly), but instead they have two fused plates. The plates can regrow, but they don't overgrow, so to speak.
[Read a post by Puffer Queen that states that Porcupine Puffers do not suffer from overgrown beaks]
However, I was under the impression that porcupine puffers don't have a problem with their beaks growing too long. I heard that they do not have the same teeth as most other puffers (ones that grow constantly), but instead they have two fused plates. The plates can regrow, but they don't overgrow, so to speak.
[Read a post by Puffer Queen that states that Porcupine Puffers do not suffer from overgrown beaks]
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40 gallon - Future home of Abei Puffer
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- Paul
40 gallon - Future home of Abei Puffer
28 gallon - 1 Abei Puffer (Captain Abe)
5 gallon - 1 Betta (Frederico)