The Puffer Forum

1) Nitrite 0, Nitrate 5, Ammonia 0
2) 22 gal
3) feeding frozen blood worm, water change once a week
4) put plants in, water spite?
5), been cycled almost 1 year,

Hi I have notice some weird movement for my congo puffer, I have him for 7 months now going for 8. he's been doing well until recently I introduced 2 plants in the tank, I think it's call water sprite? even since I put the plants in, he's been biting the plants quite often, and couple days ago I notice some white spot on his back so I assumed it was ich. I took out the carbon and dosed melafix and pimafix in the tank for 2 days. he seems to recover from it the day before yesterday so i put the carbon in last night. today when i came home, he was lying on the branch of plant and doesn't seem welling to move at all, even when he swims seems like he is swimming with all his power. he also does this move by going crazy swimming from right to left and left to right with mouth open trying to bite something, he was hitting the glass as well...I just took out the carbon again and put in some more melafix and pimafix now. i just fed him frozen blood worm and he ate them all but he wasn't swimming as smoothly as usual and sometimes lost picking on the worm...(normally he will pick the blood worm in one shot) so i'm just wondering what should i do? or if anyone has some advice, thanks.

Are you only feeding him Bloodworms? They aren't very nutritous..Check out this article on feeding he may not be getting enough healthy foods.

library/feeding/feeding-your-puffers/

Oh sorry I forgot to mention, I buy ghost shrimp once in 2 weeks for him so he has ghost shrimp for couple day then back to blood worm routine. also i feed him once in 2 days.

Try other foods.

I also have snails in the tank but he doesn't seem to have interest on them at all...should i crash the snail and give it a shot?

My Congo never ate a single snail. I even kept a large apple snail with him for maid service.

The snails are taking over in my little Congo's tank .... and I've never seen any of my lurker's eat snails.

The "going crazy swimming right to left" is something I've seen both my adult, and my smaller Congo doing before. I don't know why they do this, but I've talked to other Congo owners who have seen the same behaviour in theirs. I don't think it's anything to worry about though.

You might want to try offering your Congo mussels, pieces of shrimp (prawn), and maybe some earthworms, just to get some nutritious foods into him.

The plants that you've introduced, are they safe for your puffer? If he's biting them, you might want to make sure they can't hurt him. That's just something to check out, as I'm not really sure what's up with your Congo, best to check out all options.

Ok! Thanks I will try other food and see thanks.

pufferpuggirl wrote:The "going crazy swimming right to left" is something I've seen both my adult, and my smaller Congo doing before. I don't know why they do this, but I've talked to other Congo owners who have seen the same behaviour in theirs. I don't think it's anything to worry about though.

"ollie" does it too!

I do notice he does the "swing crazy left to right" move but these days he was acting strange. Normally when I go to the tank, he will greet me right away but these days he would just bury in the sand and not welling to move. also normally when I put in the food, he will go grab them right away but these days he will just burn in the sand, ignoring the food...that's why I was worried. Now I have dosed melafix and pimafix and I guess I will try to dose everyday for 7 days and see what's going on...Thanks for the help everyone!

Are you using the Melafix and Pimafix because of the white marks on his body? Or because he's swimming in the crazy way? I would not use it for more than 7 days in total, so if you've already used it for 2 days, I would just continue for 5 days more. You also might want to add an airstone to the water to increase oxygen, as some people have had bad results when using Melafix and Pimafix without extra oxygen going into the tank.
Congos can be odd, so I would just wait a bit and see if he goes back to being his "normal" self. Going a few days without food isn't a big deal, they do have their "off days".

pufferpuggirl wrote:Are you using the Melafix and Pimafix because of the white marks on his body? Or because he's swimming in the crazy way? I would not use it for more than 7 days in total, so if you've already used it for 2 days, I would just continue for 5 days more. You also might want to add an airstone to the water to increase oxygen, as some people have had bad results when using Melafix and Pimafix without extra oxygen going into the tank.
Congos can be odd, so I would just wait a bit and see if he goes back to being his "normal" self. Going a few days without food isn't a big deal, they do have their "off days".

OK. Thanks I will stop on the 5th day then. I do have airstone in my tank so I think should be alright. He is eating today and he greets me when I come close to the tank which is a good sign. I'm going to dose for 2 more days and will put the carbon back in. Thanks for the help.