The Puffer Forum

Hello, I'm new to this community, but hopefully someone has experience with this....

I just noticed today that my puffer developed what looks to be a air bubble on it's right side. I'm definitely concerned and wanted to see if anyone has any suggestions to help the little guy. What could cause this? Can it worsen?

As of now I haven't picked up a water testing kit, but I'm looking to get one this week when I get paid.
It's a fairly new 10 gallon aquarium, and I've had it for about 3 weeks. I set it up with a few plants a day before I got my first fishes.

I started the tank out with 3 zebra danio and a week later I got two puffers. The zebra fish were eating the puffers blood worms so I sectioned off the tank with an aquarium divider. I'm thinking a separate tank in the near future. I just cleaned the tank a week ago and added some freshwater. The tank has a florescent light, heater, plants, a tetra "Fits Whisper Power Filter" and a nice rock for the puffers to hide.

I feed the guys in the aquarium twice a day.

Kinda long, but this is the situation. Can someone help!

It could be the result of an un-cycled aquarium, or an ammonia spike. Not really possible to be sure of anything until you get your kit.

Brent wrote:It could be the result of an un-cycled aquarium, or an ammonia spike. Not really possible to be sure of anything until you get your kit.

Thats what I'm thinking also. Would you recommend testing the water before I change it out again? I could take a water sample to the aquarium store down the street.

I'm also worried about hurting the little guy with the bubble by transporting him temporarily out of the aquarium while I change the water. Any suggestions before I do any of this?

It's safe to say if the tank is not cycled yet you can do many wc's without having to test the water. You do need to know the water parameters, so do that to. Sorry I have never heard of a bubble stuck other then what I see on my puffers which is normal. They get tiny bubbles that stick to them sometimes. From the pic it looks like a swelling. Not good. Don't know what you can do other then make sure you have no ammonia or nitrate in the tank. Leaving the dp's in the tank alone would be best for all the fish. Read all you can on cycling a tank. That will help with good fish health. Hopefully someone with more advice knows what to do about the swelling.

Leave the fish in the tank when you do a wc. Never net your puff out of the tank. It can cause them to fill up with air, then you would have to burp em.

It looks like a tumor of some sort to me, but sometimes with things like this you just don't know until the fish dies and then only if you choose to do an autopsy. Is it clear? In some of the pictures it almost looks like a clear bubble under the skin, in others solid...

Does it move at all? Has it suddenly appeared or grown slowly? If it moves, there's a chance it is a nematode, which is basically a parasite that lives under the skin and is pretty nasty, pretty much impossible to get rid of without killing the fish.

Your best option is lots of clean water and low stress.. antibiotics might be something to try but I really am not too sure what to do here. Sometimes fish live for years with odd growths on them like this, other times they slowly waste away.

There's always a mild chance it could be tuberculosis, so while every good fishkeeper should do so, make sure you make an extra effort to remember to wash your hands and don't stick your hands in there with any open sores.

Thank you for all your suggestions. This morning I checked on my puffer and the bubble is gone! Hopefully it's nothing serious and will return. It looked like it was an air bubble that formed under a thin layer of skin on the puffer, not a tumor or nematode from the looks of it.

I think maintaining the water parameters is all I can really do to prevent a lot of problems for my fish in the future. I read up on cycling for a few hours last night so I'm going to make sure these guys can have a nice cycled tank.

That's good to hear!