The Puffer Forum

Hi all,

Little update. Percy is doing better. It was trapped air however it was futher back than his stomach which is why burping him wasnt working and has now been release by vets. he is on a strong course of antibiotic injections for the infaction in his fins which has imrpoved over the last few days. not out of the woods yet but hes doing much better.

https://ibb.co/cGsHsc

They have sent off also some tissue culture to find out what bactiral infections it is. hes doing well its nice to see him not on his side.

YAY! It did sound like air trapped to me.

Yes it was stressing me out a little was up till 3:30 am the first day trying to burp him and then more the following days just glad it wasn’t anything much worse and that he held in to get him to the vets. He’s on .2mls of marbocyl for the next 7 days and review after that.

It was trapped air however it was futher back than his stomach which is why burping him wasnt working and has now been release by vets.

Hey wookie, could you tell me please what the vet did to release the air??
Did he cut a hole or did some surgery??
Thanks man.

Does he eat?

Hi John132, i didnt see what they actually did but from what they explained they used a syringe to release the air. they did anaesthetise him to do so.

bit of an update on percy tho. hes not doing so well the infection is getting worse and he is weakening im going to watch over the next day or so and if no improvement i may have to put the big fella down which is the last thing i want to do but dont want him to struggle on for too long.

hope percy makes it man...

there is a super antibiotic called Carbapenem. I am not sure if the vet can get. It kills most gram positive and gram negative pathogens.
It is usually used in intensive care units in hospitals when a patient contracts a multi resistant infection.
That is like the atomic bomb of antibiotics.

Not sure if Carbapenem works with puffer fish?
Maybe Pufferpunk can help??

Sorry, never heard of it. I get most of my fish medical advice, here:
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com ... ation.html

sadly percy hasnt made it through the night. not going to be the same coming home from work to be greeted by him. not sure what we are going to do yet as i have a rather large tank looking very empty at the moment and im not sure any other mbu will be as good as percy was, never once even at over a foot long did he even touch one of the other fish. (think i was lucky there).


Thanks both for all your help. i did get a phone call off the vets late on friday. They had a look back over his xrays and it seems as if he had a growth (tumor) pushing against his swim blader. which they believe is what caused him to one take on air in the first place and two not to be acting like he used too.

I know how you feel. Lost my 19 year old fahaka last year, who allowed tank mates to live with him. No way would I risk adding another one to my tank full of fish.

19 years wow that’s a good life tho. Poor Percy was only 3 too young. However the short life he did have I believe he enjoyed he was very spoilt and everyone that came over love him haha. (Seems weird that you can get that attached to a fish but I guess until you keep a puffer you never know). Again I really can’t thank you enough pufferpunk you’ve been a lot of help through app this.