The Puffer Forum

I found my porcupine puffer stuck in my magnum filter today. I quick shut the filter off and he got of, but he's not using his tail fin at all. He's still swimming around, but I just don't know what to do. Should I just put him out of his misery or is this something that they can live with? Also my yellow tang is occassionaly nipping at his fins. I have a net I could put the puffer in, but I'm not sure how long he would live in there without being able to swim around. How can I make use of this filter still without the threat of something like this happening to another fish again.

Sorry to hear about your little guy

I personally would wait. If you can separate the tang and the puffer (a divider) what would be ideal.

You can wrap the filter intake with some disposable floss, some pot scrubbers or a sponge filter (I did that in my fry tanks)

I hope the little guy recovers

Well I put the yellow tang in a small net cage thing that hangs from the side of the tank. Will this hurt the yellow tang or can he be in this netting for a day?

egg crate is better (the lighting fixture stuff). I am not sure a breeder net is the best idea.. I have never kept a tang so I am not the best to answer that question. Sorry

So should I just let the tang loose with the puffer or could I keep the tang in the net overnight until I can get the egg crate?

have you covered the filter intake as of yet?

You shouldn't put puffers in nets due to inflating. Have you covered your intake yet? Don't magnum filters come with a grill cover?

Lowes or Home Depot, look with the ceiling tiles. Its about $12 for a 2x4 foot piece of egg crate. Cut to fit and separate them.

A healthy puffer shouldn't get caught like that if the intake tube has the screen it comes with. What are you using this filter for? Do you have live rock, powerheads, protein skimmer?

I've got live rock in the tank. I have a protein skimmer and currently I have the filter off so that he won't get sucked in again. I just got him last tuesday and he wasn't eating at all yet. I had the cover on the end of the intake tube. I'll get the egg crate today and see if that helps at all. I've also got a powerhead going in the tank. Do they also get curious with those and could he get stuck in that as well?

As Puffer Punk stated he shouldn't of got stuck on the intake to begin with if he was healthy. What are your water parameters, how long has the tank been set up, what size tank and what other inhabitants?

I wouldn't bother with a canister on SW anyway. Please also answer treck's Qs about your parameters. Better yet, I'm moving this to the Hospital Forum, so you can answer the Qs above, in red. How healthy has he seemed before this? Definitely do something about the tang, even if you have to re-home it.

I will check the water quality when I get home from work. Why not a canister filter for a saltwater tank?

The only thing that I can think of that he wouldn't be that healthy is because he hasn't yet ate in my tank and it's been almost a week. I've tried silversides, clams, shrimp, krill.

Also I don't have a hospital tank, but I could set a small one up so that I could used some sort of medicine in the tank. Or could I use medicine in the tank if I just seperate them. Would medicine harm the other fish? If medicine would be good what medicine is recommended?