Hi, I’m not new to the hobby, but I’m a bit newer to certain puffers.
I keep peas, a spotted Congo juvenile, and two red eye dwarfs. My current predicament is my Amazon puffer.
He’s in a temporary cycled 15 gallon, it cycled for a month with water a sand from an established tank. He’s approximately 1 1/2 inch in length. He came to me very malnourished and seemingly in shock. But, I got him to munch on blood worms, black worms, earth worms, and the occasional bladder snail (he doesn’t seem to like snails so now I have a healthy population in the tank). I plan on moving him to a single species 20 gallon, where he can be on his own.
Currently, he shares the tank with one male and two female Poecilia sphenops wild caught green mollies. Those are his only neighbors. They do not interact. Those three fish are excellent. There are 4 adult rabbit snails as well, part of the clean up crew with the bladder snails.
He has two air stones and a lovely sponge filter creating a gentle current. He has a heater set to 76 F. Tank has an abundance of guppy grass, jungle Val, some cholla wood, and a decorative glass bottle I added during cycling. I might remove the bottle cause I feel it might trap food. I do remove it and clean it weekly but to be honest, I can’t really see it in the veg so I might as well remove it.
They are fed every other day. I do 25-50% water changes weekly cause I know puffers are high polluters.
He is my only wild caught specimen and I feel he is not doing well because of this. My LFS had him in a 10 with another female of the same size. They both appeared sickly but he was better off than her.
As for water parameters:
Ammonia 0
Nitrates 15
Nitrites 0
pH 7.5
Using prime dechlorinator.
Like I said, I have puffers. They’re ALL active and interactive. This guy seemed to be doing well. Then… he wasn’t. Now he sits in the corner looking stressed, in the back of the tank. He was so greedy and now he’s not eating at all. I’m very worried for the little guy. He’s no longer round and plump. But he’s refusing to eat.
Amazon Puffer suddenly withdrawing
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.
-
Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32976
- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: Puffers I have kept:
T lineatus
T miurus
A modestus
T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
C lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles - Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
- Location: Greenville, SC
- Contact:
Re: Amazon Puffer suddenly withdrawing
You might want to raise the temp to 78-80. They really do best in groups. Are the teeth overgrown?
https://www.pufferfishenthusiastsworldw ... susasellus
https://www.pufferfishenthusiastsworldw ... susasellus
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!"
Re: Amazon Puffer suddenly withdrawing
Pufferpunk wrote: ↑Fri Aug 01, 2025 10:48 pm You might want to raise the temp to 78-80. They really do best in groups. Are the teeth overgrown?
https://www.pufferfishenthusiastsworldw ... susasellus
Raising temp as we speak.
Teeth are not overgrown, they look healthy.
I guess I should invest in a bigger tank. Which I can do. Otherwise, I’m not sure what to do. So I guess I should plan for a group. I’ll keep my eye on him until I can set up a proper sized tank and acquire a group. Thank you.
I should have done my research! I followed the one or six rule. Talk about misinformation.
Re: Amazon Puffer suddenly withdrawing
Update, have four in a 30 gal now, and mister withdrawn puffer has come out of his shell!
He’s eating and loosely schooling with his three new Amazon puffer buddies. They have the whole tank to themselves, and they’re really great to watch in a group. I’m happy I was able to accommodate him!
He’s eating and loosely schooling with his three new Amazon puffer buddies. They have the whole tank to themselves, and they’re really great to watch in a group. I’m happy I was able to accommodate him!
Puffers I keep:
Colomesus asellus (my army)
Carinotetraodon travancoricus
Carinotetraodon irrubesco
Tetraodon schoutedeni (the baby)
Pao suvattii
Pao leiurus (aka my pet dog)
Also keeping a variety of livebearers
Colomesus asellus (my army)
Carinotetraodon travancoricus
Carinotetraodon irrubesco
Tetraodon schoutedeni (the baby)
Pao suvattii
Pao leiurus (aka my pet dog)
Also keeping a variety of livebearers
-
Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32976
- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: Puffers I have kept:
T lineatus
T miurus
A modestus
T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
C lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles - Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
- Location: Greenville, SC
- Contact:
Re: Amazon Puffer suddenly withdrawing
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!"