The Puffer Forum

i aquired my puffer around 6 months ago and everything was going well. my last apartment had well water, my new house has town water (i treat with prime). 55 gallon tank. my kh and gh are relatively low, n-p-k are all within a safe range and are dosed according to estimative index. pressurized co2.

so my puffer didnt like the move too much. has barely eaten anything in the past month. only a couple ramshorn snails that i can tell and hasn't touched the freeze dried krill. sunday i did a 50% water change and he freaked out when the water was half empty and puffed up completely and was floating around on the surface like a beach ball. after about a half hour he was back to normal hiding behind the plants. today i came home from work and found him completely puffed up again hiding under some plants. any idea what is going on? do i need to be concerned?

what do you recommend for feeding?

if he will be fine, does anyone know where i can find him a mate?

Try live worms.

any specific type of worm?

any reason why he's all puffed out?

Freshwater puffers often don't like freeze dried krill. Have you tried any kind of shrimp?

With a low KH and adding CO2, I would check the PH. Low KH can give an unstable PH. And if you add CO2 too, it can make the situation worse. Adding CO2 will make the PH lower.

Is he deflating completely? How much of the old water did you bring with him?

the whole ph crash thing is a non issue. plus lowering the ph with co2 doesnt affect the tds so lowering the ph with co2 doesnt have much affect on animals, aside from just having too much co2 in the tank.
i have not tried any shrimp. the guy at my lfs had been keeping him for about a year in his personal tank and said that was what to feed him. i know i should have done a little more research but i really dont know what to feed him other than snails.

he did deflate completely the first time. i have to go check on him again to see how he's doing. i took about 35 gallons of the original water. i figured that would be enough to help him acclimate.

nevermind. he deflated all of the way. and died. that sucks. he was my favorite

I'm sorry for your loss!

good news. the guy that imported my last puffer agreed to sell me his! i'm wicked happy right now.
so now that things are going well again, i want to bring up the food issue once more. what should i feed him? someone mentioned worms. any specific worm?
anyone know where i can find a female?

My Salivator eat frozen Krill, forzen Mysis Shrimp, finely chopped Mussel, Bloodworm and small cockle in shell.
You could also try small earthworms.

One female to on male doesnt work with Salivator in a lot of previous experiences on here, it usually ends with the male harrassing the female to death causing a lot of damage to her in the process. If you can find females then get several to disperse aggression.

There are exceptions to one female to male but not a lot. So if you end up finding one, prepare to split the tank down the middle potentially.

thanks for the reply.
is there any specific time that you feed.

I always fed them in the evening, no longer have them I had the male for quite a whilethen he developed a kind of bloatiness and passed away.

I currently have a male Salivator, he's one of my favourite puffers too (he lives with my Mbu and they are best mates). I feed my guy pieces of jumbo shrimp, mussel, sometimes earthworms, and of course bloodworm, with snails being offered regularly as well.
Like Hilly, I feed all my puffers in the evening, in fact, they all know when it's close to feeding time and hang out at the glass bobbing up and down looking for their meal.
I don't know how things are in the US, but over here it's difficult to find Salivators, and even harder to find females. I did see some females at a shop several months ago, but they are rather expensive and I prefer the males as I think they are much prettier. I doubt there'd be any breeding going on even if I did get a female, so that's why I stick with the males.

they are pretty rare around here too. being my favorite fish (fell in love instantly) money isnt too much of an issue. i paid a pretty decent amount for the male and if i ever find a female, i'll pay what ever i have to.

i've started breeding snails to help out with feeding. he doesnt come out during the day or at night. i can see him tucked away in his favorite spot behind some plants. even if i drop some snails in front of his face he isnt interested. his favorite time is before the lights come on and i'm sure he lurks around at night when the lights are out. unfortunatey i'm not home then. so i think i'll just drop a few snails in here and there. at night and let him hunt them down.

how many snails will he eat per serving do you think?

My salivator will come out and I do see him regularly, but he is a bit shy and if another fish comes too close, he will drop the food and retreat back to hide again. I've had my guy for a while now, and of course he is one of my favourites.

It's hard to say just how many snails your guy will eat each serving. I would just put a few in there, because you don't want the snails to be the majority of his food, at least I don't, but rather something to help keep the teeth in check.