The Puffer Forum

I recently purchased a figure eight puffer about 1 month ago. My pH is at 8, ammonia at 0, nitrite at 0. I brought a water sample to a pet store today and everything was normal. He is currently in a 5 gallon tank, with a few plants and a cave. I change the water once a week and feed him freeze dried shrimp, clams on the half shell and black blood worms. My puffer has been sitting at the bottom of the tank, with his tail curled and seems to have trouble swimming but is still eating. The pet store told me that I did not have any salt in the tank even though i have been putting the appropriate dose of aquarium salt in the tank. They told me to put in 1 cup of salt in gradually, and he seems to be doing worse than ever. What do I do?????

I think there's a couple of issues here. First of all, your tank is too small, 5-gallons is not really enough room for any fish, much less a puffer. You're not doing enough water changes for a tank that small. I would guess that once a week isn't enough, as that is a very confining space you have him in. You need to get him into a bigger tank, quickly. Secondly, you didn't mention how you cycled the tank .... how long it's been up and running? That could be causing you problems if you didn't cycle it properly. And there's also the issue of salt. First of all, aquarium salt is not to make the water brackish, it's to help a puffer when it has ailments. You need proper marine salt to make water brackish, but you have to be careful because, if your filter is mature, you don't want to add too much salt immediately as it will kill the bacteria in your filter, resulting in an uncycled tank. Personally, I would not worry so much about getting him in brackish water right now (I keep my F8's in freshwater) -- I think you need to get that puffer in a bigger tank.

So if I were you, I'd get him into a bigger tank, even a 10-gallon if that's all you can afford right now, but that 5-gallon isn't going to be any good for him. Stop adding the salt, and try and get the tank stable. I'm just curious, when the pet store said you didn't have any salt in the tank, did they not tell you what salt you needed for him? Did they tell you to use aquarium salt?

It really bugs me that these places (Wal-Mart, Petco, as well as the ones we have here in the UK) will sell puffers, but they don't bother to educate themselves as to what puffers need to live. It's just "let's make some money, but not care about what we're selling" attitude. Surely it would not take that much time and effort to get a basic understanding of what puffers need. I bought a couple of puffers through a mail-order company once (still have both puffers too) and I was impressed that they included laminated care sheets for each puffer. Even if companies didn't laminate, it would not cost much to make up 'care sheets' so that the new puffer owner has a little bit of information to go on, therefore giving the puffer a better start with the new owner. I guess it's just wishful thinking on my part though.

Anyway, good luck with your Figure-8 puffer. Do try and get him in a bigger tank please, I think you will see a change in his health if you do.

I agree with everything above. You didn't mention your nitrate level. Please answer ALL the Qs above in red.

Good article in our Library on F8s.

I'd like to add that if you have your water tested at the LFS ask for exact numbers on your Amm, Nitrite, Nitrate, ect. They may think that the water is ok but their standards differ from what they should be. You are looking for 0 Amm, 0 Nitrite, below 20 Nitrate, You shouldn't have to worry much about your PH Trying to get an exact PH is often more harmful than leaving it alone.

You may be able to find a larger more suitable tank from Craigslist or another local classified site.

Here is the article PP was talking about

ug.php/v/PufferPedia/Brackish/T_Biocellatus/

And this will be helpful when the time comes to switch to Brackish water.

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=19348

Weclome to the forum, and feel free to ask as many questions as you want!

Thank you very much for your quick response. When i bought my puffer, they told me all i needed was to follow the directions on the aquarium salt box. I kept a goldfish in my tank prior from purchasing my puffer to get some bacteria in the tank and also used the product Mr. Tims biological to add some more bacteria in the tank. I cycled it for about a month and a half. I feel like i have tried everything and he does not seem to be getting any better and i feel awful for him!!! Your idea about going on craigslist is great and i will try to look for a bigger tank today. I purchased marine salt and a hydrometer but have not put it in. I put in a good amount of aquarium salt in his tank last night before i got your response so im worried this will make it worse now....

Exactly how were you cycling this for a month 1/2? Dr Tim's is an instant-cycling product.

My cycling process was only having a goldfish in there to create bacteria. They told me to do this at the store where i bought my puffer.

I've done that before, but the downside is that the goldfish probably has a lot of disease. I once bought a few feeders to cycle my tank and 2 survived and I didn't know what to do with them afterwards so I put it in a 3g bowl but it died in a few weeks

When did you add the Dr Tim's?

I added the Dr Tims about 3 weeks ago. I was having trouble with the nitrite so I added this and all of my water testing says it is normal now.

Also, when I added the aquarium salt last night, he started swimming around again as normal. It seemed like he was cured and then all of a sudden he looked worse then ever. I was worried that I shocked him with too much salt, so i did a partial water change.

I'd stopped adding aquarium salt, thats more like medication salt you need marine salt

right now he is sitting at the bottom of the tank with his tail curled. I dont know what to do and feel ssoooo bad for him

I am definitely not going to add any more salt.

Well DON'T add any more salt, either the aquarium kind or the marine salt -- right now. Let's get that puffer healthy again first.
I fear that you've killed your good bacteria (whatever you had to begin with), and that the tank is back to basically being uncycled again. I don't see how you could add all that salt and still have normal readings on your water tests. So you need to work on that. If possible, you may need to do water changes daily, and really, you probably should anyway in a tank that small.
I would say your priorities would be to get a bigger tank for your puffer because you can't get around that, he MUST have a bigger tank. Then maybe once you've got the bigger tank you could get some more of the Dr Tim's and get that tank sorted, so your puffer doesn't have to suffer with high nitrites and ammonia.
Remember to always use a water conditioner for the tap water, to remove all the yuckies.
Until you get a bigger tank, it's going to be doing water changes to keep your guy alive, I think. Please don't add any more salt of any kind, give him a chance to recover from all that aquarium salt being added. It can't have been good for him.
I really don't know what else to suggest at this point. Just try and get a bigger tank ASAP!
Good luck!