The Puffer Forum

I have a Porcupine puffer(I know that is not the scientific name) that when I came home today he was sitting on the sand acting like he is gasping for air. his eyes are completely cloudy and look swollen. I will answer the questions above real quick
1. ph 8.2, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 0, Salinity is 1.027
2. 30 gallon with about 20 lbs live rock and a Lion Fish(once again i can't think of the scientific name, it starts with a V)
3.I have been feeding ghost shrimp every 3 days. Also feeding the puffer a few pieces of dry krill every day since he is not eating much of the live food. 5 gallon water change every week. I was using a product to help lower nitrites for the first week but none since other then purple up.
4. No changes lately
5. Tank has been set up for about 3 weeks. I used live sand from an established tank, salt water out of the lfs tank. I did use some of the Biospira to help also. The live rock was from an established tank also.
The Nitrites levels got up to .5 for about 4 or 5 days and have since dropped and have been zero for about a week or more.
Is there any chance the lionfish stung the Puffer?? The Lionfish does not seem like anything is wrong at all.
Oh, the temp is 79 by the way.
Any help is appreciated, I don't want him to die if I can save him.

Is there a qt tank that you can move the puffer too? When this happened to my porc I was told to treat her with furan 2. She didn't recover and passed away a few months later. I got help too late. You will need to act quick if your porc will get it's eye sight back.

Btw: I was also told to treat the tank with beta-glucan vitamins.

this happened to me once

i put him in the QT tank and kept doing water changes no medications added (but he didnt have the eye infection that you have advised, only the gasping for air at the bottom)... and he got better from it

Maybe your tank has not completely cycled yet....

and puffers are not very tolerant of water polution...


hope he gets better mate

First things first, krill should be off the diet...a cause of lockjaw.

Second thing, how big is the puffer? A 30 gallon tank is 90 gallons too small...and could be a possible source of stress, and sickness, since puffers have a huge bioload...it does not quite sound right that nitrates would be down to 0 with a 5 gallon water change per week. Also his signs do sound quite a bit like nitrate poisoning. You need to do more water changes, probably 50% everyday, at the same time, you need to get a bigger tank. Porcs grow to over a foot. Without the proper size tank, they will get stunted, and this shortens their lives considerably. From what i hear, they will grow about an inch a month given the chance.

If you can't get a bigger tank, I would think about getting him to someone who can care for him properly.

Good luck! I hope the little one pulls through.

How is your porc doing?