The Puffer Forum

Hello everyone,
We have a large salt water aquarium in the office I work. Since I started (3years ago) I have taken the responsibility of feeding the fish. There has always been a dog faced puffer in the tank. Very happy and the cutest little guy. About 6 months ago, the company that takes care of the tanks, brought in another puffer. He is not a dog faced puffer. He is large and dark green with yellowly spots and very aggresive towards all the other fish. Last week, he attacked the dog faced puffer. I had him removed from the tank immediatley. But the dog faced puffer has a huge spot on his side that his skin is missing from the other puffer biting him. (the man who takes care of the tanks said it is like bruising?) Anyway, the dog faced puffer began to hide under the coral and things to keep away from the other fish. I noticed today they are starting to "pick" at him. the man, came and said he has a hospital tank he is bringing him to until he gets better. I want to know if anyone has gone through this and the possible outcome for the puffer fish? We all love him at the office, he reminds us of a little puppy dog. Thanks for any info.

Welcome to the forum! This is the perfect place to get help for your puffer. We'll do our best to help you out.

Different species of puffers usually don't get along together. Is the new puffer gone for good now?

Melafix is a great treatment for cuts/scrapes/bites. Also, keep the water super-clean while he's healing to prevent infections. Change the water in the hospital tank - almost 100% every day. Make sure it's heated and that it has hiding spots for the puffer - a big terra-cotta pot would be great. If you see anything fungus-y or strange-looking on the wound, you may need to use a stronger antibiotic, but Melafix will probably keep most infections at bay, and it will promote speedy healing.

There's a species profile in the PufferPedia (under the Learn tab at the top) on dogface puffers. It'll help you learn a bit more about your "puppy."

Usually for puffers it's one spiny and one softy i.e. porc and dogace (sometimes mixing puffers just doesn't work). However this sounds more like a triggerfish you are talking about (the attacker).

I would use melafix as LGP said. Make sure you buy the marine kind to.

If he's in a hospital tank without a skimmer, he can use the regular stuff, which is easier to find.

True.