The Puffer Forum

No he's not normally fat (not apart from straight after he's eaten), he looks the same size as the puffer on the abei classification - his belly isn't swollen at all - would that happen over night? he was fine yesterday morning its all happened so quick.

Ok so went to the local pet store in my lunch hour at work as this morning he was alive but looked really bad - got the water testing kit isle and they have sold out!!! a fish store sold out of water testing kits!!!

Can the LFS at least test the water for you? What about one of the larger chains?

Im going to have to try to go to a smaller store tomorrow to test the water (this was a big LFS) the smaller one was closed by the time I finished work, he's still gasping at the bottom of the tank and spitting out water... all the tests I have at home (be it basic tests) say the water is ok. Is there any bacteria or anything that would make him gasp at the bottom like this? just trying to think of any other reason this could suddenly happen

Probably not a bacteria. More likely, some sort of chemical. Any painting going on in your house or any aerosol sprays?

Hi

Just sent my other half home to do an amonia test he says there is no amonia in the tank its coming up neutral - he's doing the other tests as we speak and we had the guy from LFS round who said that it seems like a respiratory problem - from the way he is coughing and the fact it doesnt seem to be a water problem - the guy said getting him to puff might help but I dont know he's so weak I dont think he can and I heard puffing up was really bad for them?

We dont use aerosol or anything near his tank as we are very cautious of it - it really does look like something is stuck in his throat

They should be able to chew up/spit out normal feedings of shell... not sure what would get caught. Sometimes our fish have undiagnosable/untreatable diseases, just like we do.

I remembered there was once Birdy was chasing after a ghost shrimp. He eventually got it but I saw him sucked in so hard I think the front pointed thingy on the head of the shrimp stabbed him in the throat or somewhere.. he was "coughing" real hard to get it dislodged.. eventually he manage to spit that thing out.. he got me scared for a a good 10-15 sec... I was almost ready to jump him to dig that thing out... after this incident, I make sure to remove the head of any kind of shrimps/prawn to prevent a dejavu..

If u really think something might be lodged in the throat or somewhere which is highly unlikely, maybe u could try feeding chopped prawn just big enough for him to suck it in at one go.. it might dislodge that "something" .. Saw your post that its not eating though.. but, just try..

The "Swallowing banana when u gets fishbone stuck in your throat theory".. not sure if it really works..

You could try the shaking motion we do to unpuff a puffer. Possibly getting him to puff up with water & then expel it.

Hi

Could you tell me what that shaking motion is? how I do it - he is still on the bottom gasping and Im totally lost for a solution

Grab him by the tail, hold vertically--head up but always under water & shake back & forth.

Thank you - this really is the last resort but I have tried everything else and exhausted every other option

Puffers do not chew with their incisors/fused dental plates which we can see at the front of their mouth. They chew with their pharyngeal teeth (in their throat) which we cannot see. It is extremely uncommon to rare for them to get anything stick in their throat.

You do need to be able to test for pH, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate in numbers, not just a color. That means liquid based test kits.

What is the tank capacity? If you do not know, give us the dimensions and we will show you how to calculate the volume.

Do you know if your water supply has chlorine-only or chloramines?

Hi There

Thanks for replying

originally I used the basic colour kits but then puffer punk told me to buy better kits so I bought the more detailed kits (with numbers) for all of those parameters and all came out low / normal .

The tank is 4ft by 2.5 ft and I do use water de-chlorinator with every water change

I realise that it might be very rare that he has got a problem with having something stuck in his throat but the water is fine, he has no signs of a bacterial infection and he is "coughing" out water every now and again and panting on the bottom of the tank - I realise this sounds like there is a high level of ammonia or the water quality is poor but this isnt the case

I cannot think of what it could be causing him to pant and even the guy I bought him from (who has kept puffers for years) has never seen anything like it

"Low/normal" is not good enough here. We need exact numbers. And low isn't acceptable at all for ammonia/nitrite. At least he's still alive! How did the "burping" go?