The Puffer Forum

You should be seeing worms in his poop soon!

Okay the worms are coming out! i just saw one coming out of the anus area. The problem is that these worms are so thin and small that i can barely see em among the faeces. I basically just clear e entire stack of faeces..cant be bothered to check if theres worms in there

Puffer seems to be feeling better now..now gotta try and fatten him up..hes still not eating the food by himself and i gotta put it directly at hes mouth..The blue tinge at hes eye is not so significant, n its more like a dark brown tinge.

Hes tail fin is still rather ragged like a row of bite marks (0.5cm each) along the edges. Its been this way since i had him & n i haven seen any significant improvement in the tail finnage. Is there any reason for this? Melafix definitely has no effect on this..

Okay my fahaka has been completely cured from hes worms and hes colour is getting much much better, he seemed like he was smiling in the morning BUT later in the day, he did something that really shocked me..it seems that he tried to jump out. He did this before in another occasion where he suddenly kept bobbing hes head out of the water as if trying to get some air in. But he was okay after that incident.

In this case, there was a big buldge in hes stomach after he 'bobbed' out & he started breathing really heavily. I read the puffer library about this and i tried to push out the bubble. I finally managed to 'burp' him after a few attempts (3 tries to be exact) and hes tummy seems to be back to normal for now. But now the problem is that he is breathing very heavily..seems like hes suffocating or something & hes swimming frantically back and forth in the tank. I added in more airstones and epsom salt to hopefully relieve him.

The trashing around when i tried to grab him gave him a few scars so i added a little melafix. I Just hope he pulls through this after all the effort that i did to save him. One problem after another..zzzzzzzz

Water parameters are fine, no heaters in the tank so it rules out electric surge. Maybe hes just really stressed from the 'burping' incident. WIll check on him tmr morning. Its 12am at my side now.

My guess is stress from all that. Good thing it's nighttime--let him rest.

Just some additional info for puffer enthusiast:

Update: Sick fahaka (deceased)

My sick fahaka died this morning, lying on the tank substrate sideways in an awkard position with a bulge in the left side of the belly. This is the reason why puffers shd never ever be exposed to air (eg, when caught in a net, they tend to get stressed and puff up) because sometimes after they deflate, some of the air gets stuck in the body and it causes the puffer to suffocate. Another forumer in THEPufferFOrum lost hes mbu this way. i wrapped him up in newspaper with hes favourite white clams and secured it in a ziplock bag and disposed him.

My fahaka had this tendency to swim really fast to the surface especially when he was choking. There was once when he did that and some air got caught in hes belly. I had to get a tight grip of him and slowly massage the bubble OUTWARDS frm hes belly towards hes mouth and he will make a 'burp' noise. I guessed he did the same thing last night and the bubble was not removed fast enough. I checked him at 4 am and he was still fine & 8 am..dead. I already suspected something was wrong when he stopped eating on friday and kept hovering ard the surface in a daze.

Regarding hes camullanus worms, i managed to remove it completely using avitrol plus (bird dewormer containing levasimole & praziquantel) and he was making a good recovery. Only regret was that i didnt get a picture of him when he was getting better. I was mainly concern about the choking issue as it could be an indication that hes internal organs were permanently damaged from poor conditions. I ordered Vitachem from amazon and it finally came yesterday. Well i ordered 6 bottles especially to treat him and my first bottle is barely used and hes gone. Real disappointing.

So, just like to share with you guys some problems that will be faced when you keep puffers (im sure most of the members here know already ). I for one, invited problems when i made the decision to buy the sick puffer. But overall, im glad i did my best to ease hes suffering.

PS: Most of your frens/family will be really surprised that you keep puffers (poisonous) and keep asking you to show dem how the puffer puffs up. They do not realise the amount of harm caused to the puffer when he puffs up so please explain it to dem and do not show dem. I admit that im guilty of doing this when i first bought my GSPS.

Note: the fahaka in my avatar is still doing well, hes not the one who passed on

Im sorry for your loss Shagy..i know u fought hard for it

aww you tried your best

RIP wee fahaka

That is too bad... I'm sorry