The Puffer Forum

I've read not to order from aquariumfish.com but i've never personally ordered from them. I have a Fahaka puffer named pookie and got him at a local pet store but he was an owner surrender I've never really had much luck with the LFS either so i feel you there. If your tierd of the SW maybe you should try a Fahaka they are really cool I ♥ mine and he's freshwater much easier to care for I just cycle my tank once a week and he's good to go if you do consider getting one read up on them they are very aggressive and must be kept alone. Just one fish! and you need a 125 gallon tank min cause he gets pretty big as an adult. I'm thinking you can order them for around $35-$40 for a 3' Fahaka

LiveAquaria.com is good. So is Diver's Den.

Incredible, my puffer died that fast, my whole family is sad. I don't understand, but "you live and you learn..." We'll try again, but we're going to be real picky this time. Time to bleach and cycle my tank again. Gonna start out with damsels first.

If Maracyn is recommended, that means this is bacterial not paracidic & Paraguard will do nothing. Please go with what our Mentor has recommended. We make certain folks here Mentors, because they know!

Great places to order online are Live Aquaria and their counter part Divers Den and Blue Zoo Aquatics. I've purchased from all of the above and never had a problem. I have heard good things about Thatpetplace.com but I don't have any personal exp. with them.

Never had anything shipped from That Fish Place (aka Thatpetplace.com ) but go to the store often. They do get puffers in and most look healthy (the exception is sometime the GSP when they get them in look thin- they do keep them in brackish). I got my congo there and he was in nice shape whe I got him. They do usually carry some of the more common SW puffers. One note is they won't ship during cold or bad weather to prevent harm to the fish. Best to call to order. Another place to try is Pet Solutions- got my solandri from them and he was in good shape when I got him.

Let's try to keep this thread on topic, please.

Don't call it quits, just don't try to rescue a sick puffer from a lfs. All the porc's that I've seen with vibrio have died within days.
I didn't even think that they could be cured. I would do as Corvus says, follow his directions. I'm sure the lfs had no clue what was wrong with the puffer. My lfs had some porcs come in that started showing signs of the disease also. They didn't know what was wrong with them. I did some reseach, printed it out and brought it to them. Even being in the business for about 20 years they had never seen it before.


If you just noticed the other one showing signs I would start this right away, let us know how it goes.

Corvus wrote:Try a combined therapy of Maracyn and Maracyn II in a hospital setup or as 10-20times overdosed half hour baths.

The problem with this Vibrio sp. infection is that almost never real antibiotics are used in the early stage (which would be day 1).

A large UV sterilizer with a slow flow and feeding high vitamin food as well as high oxygen (esp. by surface current, 30 times tank volume per hour, no skimming while treating) can support the treatment.

There are many diffeent Vibrio spp. with very variable symptoms, the most commonly known affecting humans is cholera. I *guess* Cholera meds may have an influence on the fish Vibrio species, too. Anyway, don't grab into the aquarum with wounds and clean your hands thoroughly after contact with the fish or its water.

Another imporant Vibrio species (obviously not the one of this infection) is thought by some scientists to live in symbiosis with puffers and to produce their tetrodotoxin poison.

You guys/girls are great! However, my 2nd puffer puffer died immediately after posting. This disease is too fast moving to treat! My puffer acquired it almost immediately and this is a disease I've never seen before. I should go back to the store where I purchased this puffer from and let them know that "regardless" of the discount, I now have to bleach my tank, buy sand, salt, etc. to restart it which is 10x the cost. If I was a rep from this store, I wouldn't have taken advantage of a customer regardless of their ignorance to this particular disease and call it a "bruise." Lesson learned: QUARANTINE and DON'T BUY SICK FISH.

Anyway, it is my fault for buying this puffer and I do have a soft spot for "less fortunte animals," and believe that everything deserves a "fighting chance," but now I'm worse off and have NO salt water fish. Thanks again everyone for your help, but if anyone has the unfortunate experience of dealing with this Vibrio disease, I wish you the best of luck and please POST if you happen to actually cure this disease. I'm going to research this disease more (microscopically) and learn to fight it.

BTW, I posted the following in regards to finding a good fish store, so if anyone has any ideas, please post:
viewtopic.php?f=34&t=17305

Lastly, I do have a horseshoe crab in the Vibrio tank still and he hasn't acquired the disease as far as I can tell (he is still living)... does anyone have any ideas about what I should do after I take him out and clean the Vibrio tank...should I put him back in, or do you think the horseshoe crab might be a carrier. I don't want to have to buy a separate tank for him now. Do you think he has enough of the disease on him to spread it throughout a new tank? He heh, bleach dip maybe (just kidding). Seriously though, how about a Erethromyacin dip or treat the whole tank with Erethromyacin (with him in it) instead of bleaching it.

I'm no expert on this disease, but I wouldn't put your horseshoe crab into your freshly sterilized tank because it's almost certain that some of the bacteria is in him or on him, whether or not he's showing signs of it.

What about the system at the shop he came from? Was it connected to all their SW tanks? Their entire system should be cleaned out & sterilized!

Have you done research on that crab? They grow quite large & only eat little critters found in their sand bed, requiring an open sandy area of 10'x10', to survive.

megalodon wrote:
Anyway, it is my fault for buying this puffer and I do have a soft spot for "less fortunte animals," and believe that everything deserves a "fighting chance," but now I'm worse off and have NO salt water fish. Thanks again everyone for your help, but if anyone has the unfortunate experience of dealing with this Vibrio disease, I wish you the best of luck and please POST if you happen to actually cure this disease. I'm going to research this disease more (microscopically) and learn to fight it.


viewtopic.php?f=34&t=17305

I have tried treating several puffers for this disease (both my own and 2 at work) and no matter how early I have caught it the fish ultimately die. It's nota good disease at all, but IME it has only affected the pufers, no other creatures have been infected. I'm guessing it has something to do with them being scaleless.

Lastly, I do have a horseshoe crab in the Vibrio tank still and he hasn't acquired the disease as far as I can tell (he is still living)... does anyone have any ideas about what I should do after I take him out and clean the Vibrio tank...should I put him back in, or do you think the horseshoe crab might be a carrier. I don't want to have to buy a separate tank for him now. Do you think he has enough of the disease on him to spread it throughout a new tank? He heh, bleach dip maybe (just kidding). Seriously though, how about a Erethromyacin dip or treat the whole tank with Erethromyacin (with him in it) instead of bleaching it.

I say treat him, I'm not sure if he would carry the disease, but it's better to be safe than sorry. I would do a double dose to ensure that the disease is gone.

Sorry about your fish btw.

Pufferpunk wrote:What about the system at the shop he came from? Was it connected to all their SW tanks? Their entire system should be cleaned out & sterilized!

Have you done research on that crab? They grow quite large & only eat little critters found in their sand bed, requiring an open sandy area of 10'x10', to survive.

Yea, I know he eats detritis, but he also loves fresh shrimp (tears them apart). He does fine in my 55 for now, but heh he, I don't know what I'm going to do when he gets really big (basketball size). I didn't think he'd last this long/was a gift for my girlfriend who thought it was too cute to pass up