The Puffer Forum

Ok here is my problem, my poor little dog face puffer that I have had for 3 weeks, while I was at work got sucked up into the aqua-clear 70 powehead. I unplug ed it asap and puffer buddy ( i know not too original) was puffed up, he then deflated and swam around for a bit then went to his favorite cave made out of lace rock. He was stuck in the power head from his tail down to his stomach including his anal fin. His stomach is still deformed looking which is expected since I don't know how long he was stuck. I moved him from the 220 gallon tank to a 20 gallon hospital tank with water from his old tank. along with his cave. He won't eat which i guess is normal since he is probably in shock, I added garlic, Zoe vitamins and some stress coat. It looks like some of his skin may be torn alittle bit from the power head suction, but he wasn't sucked up to where it shredded him thank goodness. I had to move him to the hospital tank cause the 3 domino damsels that are in the 220 gal tank were starting to pick on him about an hour after he was free from the power head, he has some white stringy stuff, I guess his slime coat and skin that was injured that the little damsels were trying to eat off of him. He is still alive this morning, and hovering in his cave, eyes still brite and watches me when I check on him like every 5 minutes when I'm home. Please if anyone know what else I can do for my little guy/girl please let me know, I have fallen in love with this little guy, he lets me feed him by hand now and the last time I fed him I didn't hurry up fast enough and he started spitting water at my hand. lol I sure don't want to lose him. All this happened Thursday evening. 2-9-06

Though many people on this forum are hesitant to use medicine on this site, you need to heal the open wounds before an infection sets in. I recommend using Melafix to do this. it is safe for FW, SW, and reef tanks. apart from that, is sounds like the little guy is just in shock, i would feed small portions to him untill you see him eat, then try working him back up to normal feeding.

I responded to this at Wetwebmedia...please do post it when you recieve it.

I sent an email last night about my dogface puffer being stuck to my aquaclear 70 powerhead.
<<Yes, both received, this one responded to.>>
My husband came home and found him like that and unplugged the powerhead and the puff was able to come out and deflate himself, but his body ( his tummy area) was all stretched out of shape which is to be expected.
<<Not good news at all. How big is your puffer? A healthy puffer should not get stuck to an intake, unless the pull is very strong, and the puffer is small.>>
I called my local pet store and they told me to keep trying to feed him and that there is really nothing that I can do at this point.
<<Sure there is. Optimize water quality in a hospital tank, watch for and treat infection, and cover your intake on the powerhead.>>
Well I was going to leave him in the main tank but the domino damsels were picking at him where the power head had stretched his skin so much that it looks like he has breaks in the skin in certain areas.
<<Not good at all. Wise to separate them. You may consider using Melafix to prevent infection here.>>
So I couldn't catch the damsels, but was able to easily catch the puff with water from his tank and put him in a 20 gallon with his rock cave that he sleeps in, he is just hovering in the cave, he isn't using his tail fin or anal fin hardly at all since this was smashed up when he was sucked up from the tail end up towards his stomach. I feel bad for the little guy
and will put a screen on the power head once I turn it back on.
<<Most definitely.>>
It did have the tube that narrows down at the end on it I guess it wasn't enough
to keep him out. Please advise what I should or can do at this point.
<<I am curious to find the underlying cause of your puffer’s weakness. What size is your tank? Tank mates? Ammonia, nitrIte, nitrAte and pH readings? I have a very dim light on, on his hospital tank, which is the same moonlight that I used on the display tank, should I keep it dimly lit or still do the day and night cycles.
<<I would keep it dim until he is less stressed.>>
Thanks in advance for all your help.
<<You’re welcome. Lisa.>>

We do not consider Melafix a "medicine", per say, at this forum. It is recommended highly here. The only problem using it in a SW tank is w/a skimmer. BTW, if you have no LR or any other kind of filtration in your QT, then you need to keep a close eye on water parameters & change water accordingly.

Pufferpunk wrote:We do not consider Melafix a "medicine", per say, at this forum. It is recommended highly here. The only problem using it in a SW tank is w/a skimmer. BTW, if you have no LR or any other kind of filtration in your QT, then you need to keep a close eye on water parameters & change water accordingly.

I have a carbon filter on the hospital tank, should I remove it while I use the medication? There is no skimmer on the tank. thanks for all who have commented

Carbon should not be necessary on a QT. Absolutely remove carbon whenever you use meds. It will say so on the bottle of Melafix also.

I just wanted to give an update on my poor little puffer. He is still with us as of this morning when I left for work. I did treat him with a dose of melafix, should I treat with pimafix as well? The place on him were he was sucked up in the power head looks like it is peeling like a sunburn. He still isn't eating but did look at the food when I put it in the tank, which i removed afte an hour. But he is swimming around a bit more than he did after I put the melafix in the tank, and everyonce in a while he will swim out into the middle of the hospital tank and straighten out his tail fin and use all of his fins and then do a couple little jerks like his stomach hurts then will go back into his cave and hover there. His stomach is still lumpy looking but much better than it was after the accident where it was all streched out. Do you think this jerking that he is doing is pain do to the melafix where he has small scrapes from the power head or do you think he is trying to strech and get his stomach back to normal kida looks like the shake that they do when they are depuffing. I'm hopeful that since he has made it through 2 nights and is still watching me with brite eyes while I sit on the floor watching him for hours... If I could hold his little fins in comfort I would. Make sure you always put some type of filter on powerheads, the strainers that they come with are just not enough. Don't find out the way I did.

Pimafix couldn't hurt. Melafix doesn't "sting". Glad the fella's hanging in there. There is a thread here on a similar incident.

It's obvious you care about your very much. I hope he pulls through this for you. Please keep us updated.

He sounds like a trooper. I hope he hangs in there. Keep posting on him.

Well the little guy is about the same, he just stays in his cave, and looks at me when I'm at the tank checking on him or when I attemp to give him food which he just watchs fall to the ground I have even put ghost shrimp and some of his favorite snails in his tank. But this morning when I got up I noticed that his stomach has a spot about the size of a quarter that is a deep purple/redish pink color, not wher the powerhead had hold of him this is closer to the underside of his chin and goes back to where the skin was sucked up. I treated with more melafix and noticed an immediate lightening in the color. I'm wondering if this is a infection trying to set in. thanks for everyones advice and get well thoughts for the little guy. When he does get better, do you think I could place 2 dogface puffers in a 220 gallon tank? I will keep updates on his condition and what I have been doing for him besides praying.

well this morining, he was on the bottom of the tank. Still alive but breathing hard like before, and was out of his cave. I hope this isn't a bad sign. The purple spot on him is gone. I just hope I don't go home today to find him floating at the top of the tank dead.

Are you keeping a close eye on the parameters?

All my tests come out fine just like on my other 3 tanks. But like I said he has been breathing harder than normal since the injury. At first I thought it was just stress but now I'm thinking it might be a internal injury. which is also keeping him from eating anything that I put in front of him. and i mean anything, krill, ghost shrimp, squid, shrimp, blood worms, brine shrimp, mussels. And this has been going on since thurday evening.