The Puffer Forum

I was wondering about problems and success with these puffers (feeding,ph,nitrate sensitivity,salinity, even disease symptoms anyone has experienced with this fish). I have been having some problems with these fish first symptoms were not eating and white stringy poop next was ick then swollen gills I believe the gills were already iritated when i recieved them. They also were shipped improperly (smelly water and too cold).MY TANK PERAMETERS limestone sand lake erie ph 7.4,very hard water,0 ammonia,0 nitrite,20-40 nitrate (nitrate in tap 10-20) starting to use r/o,temp 78 deg,marine salt salinity .0006, 30 gal tank 6 puffers 1.5 inches 3 platies, 2 guppies puffers will be seperated once they have grown no crashes and have never (since cycled) had ammonia or nitrite and i check after 20 percent water changes twice a week the day after.THE PUFFERS WERE SHIPPED IN: pure freshwater 7.0 and were aclimatised drip method 6hrs I want to figure out how to combat some of the damages of shipping im assuming the fish had heximata due to the poop. my figure eights and spotteds are doing great had them a year what ive read in the pufferpedia and aqualog figure eights seem very similar but i guess thats what im trying to figure out along with some treatment for diseases they may be prone to. Any experiences and info anyone has would be greatly appreciated. And i do realize spotteds go marine.

I had one, none problems with him.. untill he jumpt out his tank..

Little shy but agressive puffer with a great personalitie! I think he may was already sick? I realy haven't any problems with the little guy with anything

that stinks that it jumped out, did you have a video on youtube of it or am i thinking of something else i just noticed the name of your puffer and had seen it somewhere

do you know what your ph,salinity,and nitrates were

yes i have, if you look under Viva the Samurai on youtube you must find it..
I like this one very much
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPp6_k6Onyc

Saltinity was very low, he looks and acts better when it was around 1.005. Nitrates and everything just as normal.. No2 0 and No3 12.5, PH around 7/8 .

Nitrates should be kept under 20 for all fish, lower for some more sensitive species. Under 20 is fine for any puffer. Welcome to the forum!

I currently have two of these puffers, male and female. I've not had any problems with them at all, other than jumping as bauk mentioned. They shoot themselves out of the tank high into the air and then come down and puff up! Mine did it yesterday, scared me too because it shot out of the tank so quick and went so high, then I heard that funny noise they make when puffing and it made itself big and fat, I could even feel the spines on it's body. I immediately put it back in the tank upside down, and it deflated and swam off. I have to be very careful and make sure to have their tank covered well, never had any puffers that jump like these do.

I've got mine in low-end brackish, tank paremeters are all very good, no trouble with nitrites or ammonia, but I do have high nitrates coming out of the tap at 40ppm, but even with that, no problems in any of my tanks.

I would think that your puffers probably weren't treated very well and then the transportation on top of that, and who knows what meds and/or chemicals they give those poor fish when shipping them. I've heard some horror stories on that issue. Definitely sounds like internal parasite problems with yours (stringy poop).

If I can help in any way, feel free to ask. Hope yours get better soon.

Thank you for welcoming me here LGP. SCHIMSY it sounds like to me if yours are doing fine with nitrates that may not be my issue I have still been working onthe nitrates but the fish i had actually died so i had to order more and they came in the same condition thats more i believe the issue for me trying to make them comfortable when I recieve them in and knowing what to do when the problems manifest themself I am pretty certain they will

dlowis -- I am guessing you're in the US? I guess I'm a bit curious who you're getting these from, but obviously if it's in the US I won't know who they are anyway.

I really wish I had some better answers for you, but it sounds like you're determined to try and work with these fish to get them healthy, and that's good for them. I wish you all the luck. Please keep us informed, and I think I forgot to welcome you to the forum, so WELCOME TO THE FORUM!! Nice to have you along.

BAUK, VIVA! was a very nice looking fish and thanks for your water salinity levels. SCHIMSY, I am in the US the supplier is a very nice man he is a wholeseller i dont want to discredit them because i have gotten a nice silus healthy happy and beutiful lorteti puffers 4 females 1 male its just these fish from them seem stressed maybe its me aclimating them 1.000 to 1.006 even though i spend hours im not sure how stressful it is on them (if anyone knows about this please reply) but I would really love to learn about them so I may be able to help others someday not to mention help the fish live better lives. Oh and thanks for the welcome.

These seem to be being sold as 'Papuan Gold Spot" puffers here in Canada.

How are the lortetis getting along? I had a female for a while & I added 2 more females & a male. Within a week, she had killed the 2 new females & then the male, after spawning with him 3x.

WT, I have seen that too, i have seen them being sold as yellow head puffers by an indonesian distributor also under a different scientific name which i believe was tetraodon papuensis, i found them when i was looking up freshwater sponges. PUFFERPUNK,the lortetis get along well enough to not kill each other but none of them are what you would call buddies they are in a twenty long and only one does not have a real hiding spot (or attack position whatever) they have less bitemarks now than when I got them, mine haven't spawned so that could change the ballgame as far as aggression, do you remember your water conditions for spawning

does metronizodol take care of all cases of white stringy poop the fish even became unbalanced i may try this question in hospital i figured maybe someone may know

I believe that it is more like a companion to dewormers... Someone correct me if I'm wrong, please.