The Puffer Forum

What kind of puffer is this & why do you think it has lockjaw?

he is a porcupine puffer about 7 inches in a 120 gallon tank with 65 gallon sump. I think he has lock jaw because i just fed the tank today and he wanted to eat but it seemed like he couldnt open his mouth like he usually does. he did eat a normal amount of food but it was obviously difficult for him. i have had him for two years and have always kept a close eye on his beak so i know what it should look like and it looks normal. I still need to test the water to make sure thats not part of the problem. I have been looking for my test kit all day and just found it so i will do that soon and post the results. but for right now my carpet anemone looks great and he is always the first one to show signs if the chemistry is off so it should be fine. puffer is also showing no other signs of illness. his eyes and skin are clear and he is acting like his normal self.

When you get your parameters tested, please start a new thread on this.

ammonia: 0ppm
nitrite:0ppm
nitrate:5ppm
ph:8.4ppm
salinity:1.023

go to

fishologist43 wrote:ammonia: 0ppm
nitrite:0ppm
nitrate:5ppm
ph:8.4ppm
salinity:1.023

go to the hospital forum and click "New Thread" at the top so you can get help faster.

Or just follow the instructions in the 1st post of this thread.

Dont have a picture handy, but here's what i used...
A 5+ml syringe (it came with some Aiptasia-X for use as an applicator). I removed the metal pointy part at the end, there is a plastic coupling underneath it.
(just an FYI, insulin syringe's are WAY too small, so dont try them).
I shoved a 6" length of normal airline tubing onto the coupling and it made a fairly tight fit.
I thawed some frozen food with a little tank water and some liquid vitamins and slurped some up with my ad-hoc feeding tube.
Thats what I used. Also, from experience, stick the whole feeding tube setup in water prior to sucking up food with it, the rubber stopper in the syringe gets dry/worn from use
and it will last a whole lot longer if its wet when you use it.....yanking up on the plunger when the rubber is dry/worn is a good way to scrap that syringe.
Hope that helps you!

thanks for the help. so far he is still able to eat if i cut the pieces small enough so hopefully i wont have to force feed

I had a 125 gallon tank with clown trigger/ porcupine puffer/queen angelfish/maroon clown/ and snowflake ell. All very healthy. Bought 300 gallon tank and made sure I put some water from old tank in new and the same with filter media. Then fish. week later introduced long nose wrasse/koran angel/batfish/and a spotted sweetlips. All fish were doing fine except batfish. harassed. then 3 weeks later turn lights on and long nose wrasse has a heart attack and dies on the spot. couple days later koran angel dies for no apparent reason. week later batfish dies of what I would call stress due to harassment. Water chemistry was fine only thing else is refugium macro algae died 12 hrs light on. NEXT IS THE BIGGEST, MY BELOVED PORCUPINE PUFFER WAS NOT EATING AND IS STILL NOT EATING. sWIMS UP AND DOWN TANK LOOKS FINE. LOOKS AT FOOD AND SOMETIMES SUCKS IT IN AND SPITS IT BACK OUT. tHIS HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR ABOUT 4 WEEKS NOW. THOUGHT IT WAS HIS TEETH. NETTED HIM AND USED A SIDE CUTTER AND CUT TOP POINT OFF. HE DIDN'T LIKE THAT PUFFED!!. DOSING WITH IODINE THINKING LOCKJAW NOW. also TOOK ADVICE FROM OTHER POST AND MIXING UP SHRIMP VITAMIN SOLUTION AND TUBE FEEDING HIM -- NEVER PUFFS, BUT SEEMS TO SPIT BACK OUT EVEN THOUGH I GO 3 " DOWN HIS THROT. STILL A HAPPY CAMPER WHEN I CAOME HOME , SO I CAN'T GIVE UP. ALL OTHER FISH HAVE BEEN PERFECTLY FINE SINCE BATFISH DIED. DID 2 WATER CHANGES ALREADY. I WONDER IF HE HAS PARASITE , BUT I THINK OTHER FISH WOULD BE EFFECTED? IF ANYONE HAS ANY OTHER ADVICE IT WOULOD BE MUCH APPRECIATED. tHANK YOU SCOTT