The Puffer Forum

I woke up at about 11 this morning unable to find my fish. As the tank is in a dimly lit area, i turned on the light and found it motionless on the carpet. It took me a few moments to register what i was seeing and i immediately ran to the bathroom to locate my net. Still a bit groggy, i tried to pick it up using the net and a peice of wood, it rolled around a few times before i was successfull in getting it in the net. The whole time it didn't move. I took a close look at it and decieded to dip it in it's tank one last time before flushing it. As soon as i put it in, there was some movement, side fins started flapping around and it started breathing heavily. He's not moving much, resting on the bottom of the net covered in hair and carpet fibers but he's definitely breathing...

I think it must have happened sometime during the night. My mom usually gives it some food before she leaves for work at around six in the morning and all the food is still there, uneaten. I called her to ask if she saw the fish in the tank, she said no so it must have happened before then which is at least five hours since she left and god only knows what time it happened. Is there a chance my fish could still come back after something like this? I guess the breathing is a good sign, i'm hoping that it's lack of movement or response to when i was cleaning it from the hairs and fibers are because it's too tired to move..


Edit:

My fish is resting on the bottom of the net which i have placed near the top of the tank, it's only movement is from brathing, it's color has started to return and when i move the net around from underneath him his side fins move about like he's trying to balance or steady himslef..

Fish actually can breathe fine above water, lots of O2, it's the drying out of the skin and eventually gills that kills. This is why fish that come back from being out of the tank generally don't have anoxic brain damage. Your fish isn't moving because his skin drying out hurt it, think of him has having a really bad sunburn. Don't do anything rash until he's long stiff and dead, he could well recover.

It's a good thing you found him. Try to keep the puffer top-up (like he normally is) and IN THE TANK at all times during the process. Hope he survives.

groovitudedude wrote:It's a good thing you found him. Try to keep the puffer top-up (like he normally is) and IN THE TANK at all times during the process. Hope he survives.

Yeah, whenever i move the net around, he manages to stay upright and not turn upside down or on his side. Thats gotta be a good sign...

I don't know how to burp fish but I know it can be done, he was in the air so he is most likely full of it. I had to "burp" my white spotted toby, because he jumped out of the container when I was moving him to the qt tank because he has to go back because he is killing my other fish by fin nipping I don't want to get rid of him he was my first marine puffer but hes killing everyone! He jumped and puffed air it was scary I have never seen a puffer jump and never seen a toby puff but I pressed on his belly and some of the air came out and he seems fine now. Hes eating and swimming, but I think he scared himself by jumping and puffing air at the same time. So try "burping" him and see if he acts a little better.

Keep your eye out for air pockets, but since he's upright and stable, you're probably OK.

I hope the puffer will be ok soon.
It looks like you find him right on time

I read on a post here somewhere, the same thing happened. Someone came home and could not find their fish. They looked for about 4 hours and finally found it. They put it back in the tank and it turned out fine. The fish was fine after a few days, swimming normal and had all it's color back. I don't know how long it was out of the tank but it was more than 4 hours. It jumped out during the day while they were out. If it's breathing you should be ok. Keep us updated.

I've since removed the net and allowed the fish to move freely thinking it would settle at the bottom to rest but it hasn't. Instead it stays near the top of one corner, about a cm below the surface, totally still occasionally swimming towards the middle and then returing to the corner. It just stays there most of the time, nothing but it's side fins moving to keep itself steady. It is responsive, which i guess is a good thing. Whenever i put my hand near it, it swims away and some of it's color returns. I guess thinks are looking good, i'll give it time to fully recover and if there are any other things you could suggest to make it's recovery easier, i would really like to hear it.

wow sounds like he's doing good! i think you just need to give it some time and he should pull through, only thing i might suggest, (can someone aggree or disaggree with me on this)i would keep the lighting dim or off cus i know when i acclimate my plecos or almost all my fish i keep the lights off for the next day cus it helps to reduce stress and i would think it would with puffers too. so i would keep his light off for most of the day and just let him rest.

and hopefully you've got a lid or something on the tank now...

It's now been 23 hours since i found it on the carpet yesterday, it seems very active and responsive. Eats his food like theres no tomorrow, darts away when i put my hand near the glass and chases my finger around when i put it in the water. I can't beleive how well he's doing after having been out the water for well over five hours... Anyway i'll leave him alone and let him rest up some more and i'll treat him to a live meal later in the week, maybe some shrimp or a baby tetra or a crayfish..

Found like you have an almost complete recovery! Good job. Keep an eye on him for the next week or so, he might get ich or something because of it.

You might want to do a water change in case he has some chemicals on him from the carpet. There was an instance I heard of where a dog kept getting a rash on his hind legs and no one could figure out why, eventually it turned out that he was having some kind of reaction to the scotchguard in the carpet (which, of course, he was sleeping on).
So, just in case...

In cases like this, I always add Melafix immediately. Not only is it good for skin irritations and wounds, but it seems to help fish that have been under stress quite a bit. I would imagine 5 hours of laying on a carpet would stress any fish!

Glad to hear he's doing well, that's pretty impressive of a recovery.