The Puffer Forum

Right now He's got a big lump at the back of his stomach. It's not from food, i didn't feed him much today.
All I can think of is Constipation, or he swallowed some air. Or possibly Gravel.

)===> is my fish
= is the lump's placement.

is he OK, or is he sick?

A picture would help us a lot on situations like this. Is it a lump or the curvature of the puffs body?

It's definitely a lump. I don't have a working camera at the moment, or I'd take a picture.

It's shrunken some now, so I'm thinking it was constipation. He's been a bit skittish too. I added some decorations to his tank so I'm guessing he's a little stressed.

Hrm... Just could have had its back arched. My puffs do that every so often when they practice puffing.

How would you guys recommend treating for parasites. He's starting to thin out real fast, and it's worrying me a lot.

Treat food with levimasole (if you can get it) and feed it to the puff. Or treat the tank with prazi-pro.

okay thanks, also, I think this is part of the parasite problem but he's starting to look kinda scaly, and one side of his midsection looks sunken in. Is there another problem, possibly with salinity or the like.

Its just a side effect of being plagued with IP's. Sooner you treat, the sooner the puff will look healthy.

I've recently learned the hard way it's best to try to find Prazi Pro (made by Hikari brand). It can be like $20 for the medication bottle though (some of these shops have the price more than twice what you pay online) and only one of the 5 petshops in a 40 mile radius around me carries it. The biggest advantage of Prazi Pro for me is the simplicity of application (bath method).

Sorry that you got yourself into a lot of work/money with the puffer, but it will eventually be worth it and get easier once everything is healthy/established. Might be too late for this one though =x

Do more frequent water changes (half every other day?) to try to keep the water pristine. To accomplish this: fill 5 gallon bucket with tap water, add the aqua-safe chemical and marine salt, wait 24 hours. There are all sorts of theoretical reasons why we wait (let the salt dissolve fully, let the temperature reach room, let other chemicals in the tap water air out).

It is extremely likely that your puffer is sick with the IPs (internal parasites). However, it has gotten very sick as a result of the environment (and stress from being in a petshop then in a new place, with transportation). To make the environment better, be crazy with the water changes and make sure the temperature is staying stable in the tank (need a heater if you don't already have one). Temperature should be above 75 and below 84, but Stability is the most important part of the temperature for the fish's health.


I'd also like to take this moment to suggest it to be procedure for pet shops to treat incoming puffers for parasites.

-Pyratt Pete

light: your puffer doesn't really need an aquarium light. Have the lights on in your room during the day or a lamp a few feet away or something. Often the cheap (incandescent) aquarium lights cause more problems than they help because they release a lot of heat that causes the temperature instability issues (hot when light's on, cold at night).

argonite bag size: 15lb bag of argonite would not be overkill for a 20 gallon (long-shape) tank. You didn't mention if you got a 20H or 20L though. If you already have gravel in there though...you're best off with the crushed coral or argonite in a mesh bag (or pantyhose) in the filter (presuming its big enough to fit its regular insert plus this new pouch).. But yeh, I've never seen argonite in smaller than 15lb bag

He's being medicated at the moment, and appears to be fine, as far as survivability. It's not stress, he seems to be fairly happy. The lights won't mess w/ heating, as the cover design my dad and I made prevents that for the most part. I want the light because my parents hate it when room lights are left on, it drives them nuts, and I'm also in a basement so the natural lighting is near Nil.

Also I have a heater.