The Puffer Forum

Pufferpunk wrote:100%, no doubt in my mind, that's a pufferbite.

There you have it! I learned yet another thing new today. LOL

when i first got my puffer
he was missing a fin
and his belly was covered in puffer bites
his fin never grew back, and he still has small scarring

Thanks

I have a new problem. One of my fish is not as active as the other, which is not the problem. The less active of the one is the one I am worried about. His name is Fredrick. Fredrick is the bigger of my two puffers.
I just saw him curled up in a ball by the heater. I checked the temp and it is about 80 degrees. Fredrick was just laying there.
I stuck a net in to see if he could swim. He swam, but only with one fin. I watched him. I saw him move his other one after awhile, I can not tell if it is the same size as the other one or not.
His gill on the side where he wasn't using his fin did not seem to be moving as much as the one on the other side.

Hopefully some one can help me.

Fredrick was probably sleeping, think if someone woke you up all of a sudden, would you walk right? Puffers can be strange fish in the way they swim, have you ever seen another fish that hovers. My dogface use to stick one fin inside his gill all the time. If he is not appearing sick ( eating, active, no burn mark from the heater ) I wouldn't worry about it.

Test you water and see if you have ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate in there. More than likely sleeping but whenever you have odd behavior in a puffer there are two things you should do. First test your parameters. Second, while the last test finishes, do a 50% water change. I do them in this order because I want to know what's going on in the tank before the water change, just to make sure the biofilter is good. Gives more of a diagnostic tool this way.

When I say odd behavior, I mean something that you have never seen them do before or if they seem to becoming ill because puffers are odd characters to begin with.

thanks