The Puffer Forum

Hi, I have a Green spotted puffer that is about 3 inches long. The ph is 7.8, nitrites 0 and nitrates 20. He is in a 33g Brackish tank around 1.012. He is the only one in the tank. I feed him freeze dried shrimp, brine shrimp and snails. I usually change the water once a week if not twice. I recently changed his water twice this week. I've had him for about two years now. I cycled the tank fishless. Lately he has been grey bellied and floating on his side. He is still hungry but it seems he has some swim bladder issue perhaps. Can anyone help? I'm really attatched to peabody.

Your nitrates are really high.

well actually it's less then 20 I would say. And instead of telling me it's high why not tell me where it's suppost to be?

It sounds like he may have swallowed some air, check out the article on the site library on burping a puffer.

20 nitrate isn't really that bad.. Best to keep <20. At 3", I'd give him larger pieces of foods to eat. Brine shrimp is basicly non-nutritious, as it's mostly water. Snails are great! Check out the feeding article in our Library (under the Learn tab, above) & try the burping too.

Here are some of my initial guesses:

- Freeze-dried foods could have caused some build-up of air (since they're dried). I only really use freeze-dried foods for medicine (since it sucks it up really well). I'd switch to frozen foods like clams, muscles, shrimp (the kind we eat), crab, octopus, scallops, and squid. Make sure it's raw and has no spices/butter/oils in it. Just thaw it in a cup with some water from the tank (and make sure it's completely thawed), and then feed.

- At 3" and assuming he has no internal parasites, he probably holds his food pretty well. When you switch to frozen foods, you can feed once every 2-3 days (depending on how quickly the food is digested). Overfeeding can cause fatty liver disease (among other things).

- I'm not sure where you live, but here in Ontario (Canada), it's coming on spring time, which means the water treatment facilities start introducing a lot more chloramine and oxygen into the tap water. As such, I usually have to double-dose my dechlorinator and let to water sit for a bit (boiling is best, but I'm kinda lazy) before putting it into the tank. Maybe it's possible that he's feeling some effects from spring water, perhaps?

- My last guess is that he simply swallowed some air and needs to be burped. I'd give this a try!

I agree with all of the above. I feed my puffers: mussell's, clams, shrimp, crab etc. I also believe he may need to be burped. Let us know how it goes.

How is he?