Hey guys,
New here, and so glad this place exists. I have 2 Spiny Box Puffers that are just the best. 1, named Fatso, is about the size of a lemon, and the second, named Minnie, is a little more than half Fatsos size. Never have either of them had any issues whatsoever. Until today.
Everything was fine this afternoon when I went to work, but when I came home 5 hours later, I saw Minnie at the top of the tank. They always greet me when I come home so I knew there was an issue immediately. It looks almost like she inflated to stretch, and just can’t get the last bit of air out. It’s a bump right next to her tail fin. She’s able to swim, eating fine, but with her tush up towards the surface. When I first saw her tho she was so still that I thought her tailfin was broken(just to give u a visual).
Im by no means the perfect fish mom, and any advice or help will be appreciated more than you know. I don’t want to do something trying to help and make things worse. I love this fish, I’ve had her for a year now and has such a personality. I will be CRUSHED if something happens and I can’t help her. Please. Has anybody else had this problem? I looked online and on YouTube and it’s just a bunch of people purposefully inflating puffers which just sent me on a whole new panic and distress wave. Thanks so much guys.
HELP! SpinyBoxPuffer having issues and I’m in a panic!
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.
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Spinyboxmom
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 4
- Joined: Fri Jul 17, 2020 9:50 pm
- Location (country): United States
-
Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32773
- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: Filbert, the 12" T lineatus
Punkster, the 4" red T miurus
Mongo, the 4" A modestus
2 T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
Also kept:
lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles - Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
- Location: Chicago
- Contact:
Re: HELP! SpinyBoxPuffer having issues and I’m in a panic!
Hi, Sorry it took me so long to respond, I seemed to have lost this post. How is he now?
library/hospital/help-my-puffer-is-air-filled/
library/hospital/help-my-puffer-is-air-filled/
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!"
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Spinyboxmom
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 4
- Joined: Fri Jul 17, 2020 9:50 pm
- Location (country): United States
Re: HELP! SpinyBoxPuffer having issues and I’m in a panic!
Aw thank you for checking in. She’s doing AMAZING! It might sound silly to some people but I literally feel for her, well all of them, the way most people feel about whir dogs. I couldn’t sleep. I watched her all night. She’s incredible. Such a smart fish. She was working hard to stay down and not have her rush float. I did SOOO much research and read about putting them in a container and sink it so she won’t float to the top and something horrible happen. As I was getting everything together to do just that, she propped herself up under an anchor we have in her tank, and stayed there til the air bubble finally went away. It was pretty awesome to see her do that. Immediately everything went back to normal. No issues since, healthy and happy as per usual.
I honestly can’t say thank you enough for touching base. I appreciate it more than you know
I honestly can’t say thank you enough for touching base. I appreciate it more than you know
-
Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32773
- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: Filbert, the 12" T lineatus
Punkster, the 4" red T miurus
Mongo, the 4" A modestus
2 T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
Also kept:
lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles - Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
- Location: Chicago
- Contact:
Re: HELP! SpinyBoxPuffer having issues and I’m in a panic!
Yay!
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!"