The Puffer Forum

He seems to be settling in & is cruising around the tank, instead of resting on the substrate. He seems to be holding his mouth open constantly though. Stress thing, or is something wrong with him? His teeth do not appear to be overgrown.
I will try to get pictures, but if this is a standard puffer thing, maybe someone can help without pics...?

Is his breathing laboured? Can you post water params please.

Also is it wide open or just a little.

Baby awake. Will post parameters & photos when husband gets home. Thx for looking at the thread!

No worries

OK. Water parameters are good:
ammonia 0
nitrite 0
nitrate < 20ppm
ph 7

Working on picture. It looks like his mouth is frozen open. You can see the tongue pumping to move water through. no other signs of distress. Belly is white. Fins are spread...

Parameters look as if they are in check, run through the questions in red at the top, minus the parameters since you just posted those.
Any change in temperature recently?

Tank is 120 gallons
The new fahaka is the only inhabitant.
The tank was occupied by a group of discus until the wee hours of this morning. massive water change to catch them out, but not all. The tank is cycled (as the params demonstrate). temp is 78 degrees F
The major change is, of course, the fahaka. I'm trying to figure out if I've been sent a fish with some mouth problem, or if this is relatively normal puffer stuff.
Hope this works. If it does, it is the best picture of how his mouth has been "frozen" all day.



here's the tank he's in: is the decor adequate? If not, what types of hiding spaces do they like? Driftwood? Pots?

Just wanted to add that I have not attempted to feed him anything. Was worried that with the mouth issue & his newness to the tank, any food would just go uneaten and possibly foul the water.

i'd definitely try to feed him , and see what happens ....you can always remove any uneaten food . Whats he been fed uptill now ??

Do you know any of his history? It's not normal for them to always hold their mouth open like that.

I've never heard of or seen something like that, it's definitely a curious thing.

The only things I can think of are:
Maybe his back teeth are somehow causing a problem, or someone allowed his front teeth to get too long and just recently trimmed them.

He may be stressed. I would give him some sort of cave to settle under.


Here's my 125g:

The mouth is still open today, though not quite as much. Gave him a freeze-dried krill last night, and I don't think he liked it, but he did at least try it - it is in pieces on the substrate. Thawing a shrimp right now, to feed this afternoon. Once I have established that he can and will eat, will hit the grocery store for some harder shelled foods.

I really hope it is just stress. He came from Jeff Rapps at tangledupincichlids.com, who is well known in the cichlid community as a very reputable, online dealer of difficult to find fish. Primarily, Central & South American cichlids, but also oddballs, and "monster fish". I have purchased many fish from him, over the past several years, and to receive a fish with something wrong with it would be way out of the ordinary.

TY for the tank pics. We have lots of pots & driftwood around, so I will add a few hiding spaces when 7 month old baby allows.