The Puffer Forum

Hi all puffer experts,

I had rescued two ceylon puffers (4 inches) from an LFS where one of them had
got scared and jumped out and fell at the back of the tank in the shop, by chance i saw it
and told the owner about it, they were not worried, so i had to buy them and then the guys
tried to pick up the puffer which had air filled and out of water for almost 10 mins.

we put it back and it was puffed up, so I had to force the air out of it by squeezing it with
a bar(sounds harsh, but i was gentle) and it became alright and started swimming.

I bought it home and it was with me for 3 days after which it died. the second one is still
living and swims freely, but keeps dashing into the corners of the tank and I havent seen it eating.

I feed my fishes dried prawns. i havent seen it been aggresive, its pretty cool and moves around freely.

I am worried as it has not eaten for i dont know how long, its been a week at my place.

please respond and sorry for the lengthy post.

yours truly,

Dan

Please answer these questions:

1 ) How did you cycled the tank? If you don't know what cycling is, how long has the tank had fish in it, and how long was it set up with fish in it before you added the puffer?
2 ) What kind of water is it (Freshwater, brackish, marine)? I assume it's freshwater, but I just wanted to ask.
3 ) Have you only been feeding it dried prawns?
4 ) Is the puffer's belly very sunken, or is it emaciated?
5 ) What colour is its belly?
6 ) How much decoration/caves are in the tank? Is there a background/something covering the back/sides?
7 ) How big is the Ceylon puffer?
8 ) Did you positively identify it as a Ceylon puffer? Often times, Figure 8s and Ceylons can be mistaken for each other.

Ceylons and GSPs are known to be very skittish, especially if they're in an environment that they don't trust. If you could take pictures of the tank and provide the information above, we can try to help you out as best as possible.

Ceylons are also a Brackish puffer, and if the puffer is anywhere larger than 1 inch, it will need to be moved to a CYCLED brackish tank. Please don't bring your tank up to brackish right now, as we need to make sure things are stable first.

Hi Paul,

the answers :

1 ) How did you cycled the tank? If you don't know what cycling is, how long has the tank had fish in it, and how long was it set up with fish in it before you added the puffer?

- its a cycled tank and up and running since a year, it was cycled by guppies and danios.
now its got cichlid juvinile.

2 ) What kind of water is it (Freshwater, brackish, marine)? I assume it's freshwater, but I just wanted to ask.

- its freshwater

3 ) Have you only been feeding it dried prawns?

- i feed it pellets and dried prawns have dropped some trumpet/apple snails
but never seen it eat

4 ) Is the puffer's belly very sunken, or is it emaciated?
5 ) What colour is its belly?

- have a look at the pics

6 ) How much decoration/caves are in the tank? Is there a background/something covering the back/sides?

has many caves and plants
have a styrofoam background - light colored - will be grey in a weeks time

7 ) How big is the Ceylon puffer?
3-5 inches i guess

8 ) Did you positively identify it as a Ceylon puffer? Often times, Figure 8s and Ceylons can be mistaken for each other.
pls check the picture, - think its a ceylon

sorry about the late reply, was away.

I am very unhappy abt my puffer.

i just want it to be happy like other fishes.

Dan

Moving this topic to the hospital section.

i think high brackish would mroe suite this puffer. to me does not look like a celyon. but if its 3" its amay well be a F8

Id recomend a brackish setup with warmer temps around 26-27degrees.

Dried foods arnt always the best. get some frozen prawns chop a little up see it it takes to that. Maybe soak them in some garlic first maybe to get him eating. He doesnt look overly thin so thats not a imediate concern the coloration doesnt look great though. FW isnt doing any good atall.

Hi, thanks for the reply,

how do i make a brackish solution as the place where i stay, there is no saltwater body around?

any specific way to tag this as F8 rather than a ceylon,
how do i make sure what it is?

I am not sure if it is eating the dried prawns, as I have not seen in eating when
i am around.

he is a bit shy but mostly floats/swims around slowly.

when i approach he move to the tank bottom.

the temperature is constant 27C and i maintain that, the color has not changed
since i have got him.

he is a bit more in the open rather than in his cave from few days.

he sticks around the top/bottom corner of the tank and does his up and down
swim routine constantly.

hope this helps further.

Dan

It is definitely a Ceylon, no question there.

How big is your tank again? I couldn't find it in the posts anywhere.

His belly is most likely black because he's not in the brackish environment he prefers. You can create brackish/saltwater by picking up Marine salt (NOT aquarium salt). Instant Ocean is a reliable brand at a decent price ($45-60 for a 5 gallon pail of salt which does 160 gallons of marine water).

These are the steps you need to take:

1) Buy a hydrometer that reads from 1.000 SG (Specific Gravity) to 1.025+ SG (Instant Ocean also makes a good hydrometer), or pick up a Refractometer.
2) Buy a 5 gallon bucket of Instant Ocean marine salt (or some other equivalent marine salt).
3) Begin raising the SG of your tank by 0.002 each week (explained below) until you reach an SG of around 1.012.
4) Once you reach an SG of 1.012, you'll have to decide if you want to have a full-marine tank (recommended), or to do high-end brackish (more expensive in the long run and more work).


Raising your SG can seem a bit tricky at first, but it's rather easy. A good estimate of salt is that it takes about 1/4 cup of marine salt to bring a 2-gallon bucket to an SG of 1.008. You only want to raise the tank up by an SG of 0.002, so you need to do some extrapolating. If you post your tank's volume, we can give you an estimate of what you need.

Also note, the salinity (salt level) in a Marine tank is between 1.018 - 1.025 SG, so don't mix up this much salt to start with, as you don't want to raise your tank that quickly! The reason you want to raise it slowly is so that your beneficial bacteria doesn't die off, which would cause your tank to cycle again, which tends to lead to your puffer's demise.

Hi Paul,

thanks for the reply, right now i have a 36x12x15 tank with small cichlids
(2inches - blue dolphins, electric yellows, green terrors, SAE and 1 pleco)
and a baby silver aro.

I had 2 of these puffers, but 1 died soon, in the LFS these were in
24x12x12 freshwater tank.

I have an internal filter on and water quality is good as of now, all fishes
as active and healthy, except for this one.

I have not had any experience in brackish/marine setups and not sure if i want to
venture into it. The marine salt you mentioned in the quantity costs me
a fortune here (Bangalore-India).

Should i return this to the LFS? again that will just be quickening his death
in some other tank i guess.

any other alternative or more affordable way will be good.

waiting for reply.

Dan

he really does need brackish water... and your other fish will not like that at all..

so you have two choices,

1) Buy a separate tank for him, 30 gallons... and cycle it with brackish water.. around 1.004 (you'll need a hydrometer for this)... at that level it shouldn't use that much salt, so not that expensive...

then drip your ceylon across ...

OR

2) Try and find a LFS that cares for their fish better than the shop you got him from... and take him there..

I agree with t1gerbee. It will never be happy in your current tank, and will likely end in a premature death. Sorry to sound blunt, but it's quite unfortunate when the LFS doesn't properly keep their fish and you're stuck in this situation.

Either you have to invest in a tank and start using salt, or you have to give him up to someone else. If your local fish store has marine tanks, you can suggest to them that they can acclimate him to the marine tank (he would love to be in one of those). Just make sure there's no coral in the tank that he goes into.

Hi all,

thanks for all the help,

now giving to the LFS is out as i checked with few LFS's here and all seem to not want this buddy.

checked the salt rate and the guys say it will take a week to get a bag of 1 Kg which costs around 500 INR
and i bought these puffs for 70 INR. Thought they would live but not sure now.

anyway have to wait for a week to get the salt and i have a spare 24x12x15 tank, hope to set him up in that.

Dan

They really don't keep any marine salt? Yeesh. I guess we're just spoiled over here.

Well, if they don't want him, he's best off staying with you! If you have to wait a week, I suggest setting up the second tank as freshwater, and take one of the filters from your currently established tank and put it on your second tank, and put the puffer in the tank. After you've done this, put some black bristle board/cardboard on three sides (left, right, and back) of the tank, as this will make him feel more secure. Once you get the salt, you can slowly start bringing up the salinity of the water (only bring it up by 0.002 SG each week... sorry for being repetitive, but I just want to make sure ).

so does no one keep marine fish where you live? ..

t1gerbee wrote:so does no one keep marine fish where you live? ..

of course they do keep marine fish there... not for long i presume!?!?!

So where's he supposed to get a hydrometer from?