The Puffer Forum

TEMP 75'


I bought a green spotted puffer from Walmart about 2 months ago. It has been very healthy and has had a good appetite until recently.

About a week ago it stopped eating, and it appears to have swollen slowly and steadily, not puffing, but swelling, kinda doughy and very obese looking, and has been constanly swelling for about a week. The swollen look doesn't look healthy at all, in fact, today, it seems like it cannot close its mouth. It is very lethargic, not swimming around very much at all.

The facts: about 2 to 2-1/2 inches long, good coloring, with the normal darkening happening every once in a while. Lives alone in a 10 gallon tank. When it was eating it ate snails and frozen plankton. It loved cold, frozen plankton and snails.

Temp right now: 78ish degrees
Ph right now: 7.6 to 7.8
Ammonia right now: 0
spec gravity: 1.0055 with no significant changes recently
Nitrates: ?? no nitrate test kit yet
last water change about 2 weeks ago, about 40%, necessary chlorine reducers added as directed

Is it parasitic infection from snails? Is this some maturing/growth thing? I have never seen it puff up yet, do they puff up for long periods of time like this? I have NO IDEA.

Any ideas?

how often do you feed it?
normally a puffer that size should start being fed about every 2 days...its noral for GSP to have their mouth open the majority of the time.

maybe if you had a pic it be easy to tell better.
another big thing is the nitrites. do you have readings on that?
the ph should be about 8.0 and the minum size for a GSP is 30g. your tank is too small.
is he in brackish water? he should be.
he should be getting more then plankton and snails. krill, mollusks.
epsom salt is good for bloating. if he is puffing up thats very stressful on the fish. he shouldnt be puffing up at all.
you should be changing the water AT LEAST once a week 50%
i do 2 water changes a week 50%
they are messy eaters so this is a must. normally over filtering your tank is a good idea. or getting a buffer too. i hope this helps

I would suspect there are two different things going on. Since your tank is so small and you haven't done a water change in two weeks, you probably have high nitrates. Clean water is essential for keeping these puffers healthy. So do several smaller water changes (10-20%) over the next day, then plan on doing 50% daily until he looks better.

The other thing that it sounds like is constipation, although I've never heard of constipation where the entire body swelled. I wonder if this is the puffer version of dropsy?

Other than water changes, I don't have any advice to give you as I'm not really that educated on medical stuff, but I'm sure someone will be along shortly.

In the mean time, can you get a photo of the sick puffer so we have a better idea of what we are looking at?

And in the future, frozen foods really should be thawed out before feeding, and a varied diet is highly recommended.

I will try to get a pic tomorrow.
RE diet/frozen foods: It LIKES the plankton cold, it doesnt eat it when its thawed. It doesn't like Krill. I re-measured and it is no longer than 2 inches. I plan on moving it to a bigger tank in the next few months.

majoun wrote:I will try to get a pic tomorrow.
RE diet/frozen foods: It LIKES the plankton cold, it doesnt eat it when its thawed. It doesn't like Krill. I re-measured and it is no longer than 2 inches. I plan on moving it to a bigger tank in the next few months.

have you tried feeding him shelled foods? like clams? oisters? just get them from the super market. squid too if you want. he is small but he needs more foods. if the food you are buying is from a reliable company then it should be cleaned from any harmful bacteria or parisites.

is he in brackish water? he needs to be especially as he gets older. close to marine conditions is best.

Add 1tbsp/5g of Epsom salt, to reduce constipation & swelling. Get nitrite/nitrate kits ASAP.

Images: there are 3 of them

http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2 ... 2311257663

I put 1 tablespoons of epsom salts into the 10 gallon about 24 hours ago, and another tbs about 6 hours ago, no change yet. Nitrates are fine, his tank is clean, it is normally 40%ed about every week. In the last few days I have replaced about 6-7 gallons of water.

Yeah, its in brackish water, kept about 1.005

Its not like he's swollen in one area, he is swollen all around, i imagine if he puffed, this is what he would look like, but its like he puffed, and cannot figure out how to un-puff...

He is still not eating ANYTHING. He seems maybe a little less lethargic the last couple of days, swimming around a little, today he was swimming in the bubble flow of a bubble stone i have set up in his tank, he seemed to enjoy the bubbles hitting his body, but then again, he is normally easily amused. I will keep you posted

Those pics above were taken Wed Night I think, looking at them today, he might be SLIGHTLY less swollen, the area arounf his fins seems SLIGHTLY less cramped, its hard to tell though.

NEW pics taken 11/9:

http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2 ... 2295047703

They seem kind of dark, i had to up the brightness on my display settings to see them well

The tank is WELL filtered, with full undergravel setup AND a 20-30 gal Whisper power filter with the heads and cartridges changed regularly

He looks at the food like he wants to eat it, but doesnt get within an inch or two

He* has been swimming alot tonight, mostly at the upper 3 or 4 inches of the tank near the bubble flow from the bubble stone, although that might be because it is the nearest part of the tank to me, he likes people

* no, im not sure

im sorry i dont no...that poor puffer do his eyes pop out?

No, his eyes seem fine.

Check out the "Air-Filled" article in the Hosp section of our Library.

Looks puffed and unable to deflate himself. Do a forum search.

PP, the air filled article seems to be missing from the hospital section.

Take a look at this as well:
http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/ug. ... roviridis/

I looked for air filled in the archives earlier after reading through some other posts in the hosp section, i cant seem to find it

can you give me more info? Please help

It was removed but was supposed to be put back. I have info on burping in my GSP article in the Library.

Apologies for that, its back now:
http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/lib ... ir-filled/