The Puffer Forum

I have a 29 gallon tank that had 5 DPs in it (4 females and 1 male). About 3 days ago I rescued a female DP from someone. She does not look to be in bad health from what I can see, she has the normal round shape that female DP's have. I acclimated her to her new home (the 29 gallon with the 4 other DP's in it) and I thought for sure that everything would be okay from here. The first night she seemed absolutely fine, I tried to get her to eat some live blackworms but she would not but I figured it was just because of stress (even though I have always got DP's to eat on the first night with live blackworms). I saw her and the other DP's that were previously in the tank getting into little arguments but nothing too serious at all. Well it has been days now and I still have not gotten her to eat no matter what I try. I want to treat her for IP's even though I doubt she has them but I can't do so because I can't get her to eat at all. I have tried blackworms,blood worms and snails and all the other Puffers go crazy with them except for her. Another thing is that she is not acting like a normal DP would. She pretty much just stays in one part of the tank (about mid level of the water column most the time) and does not explore or anything like DP's normally do. What really alarmed me today was right after I feed them all (she didn't eat again) she was swimming around but doing some really odd movements. It was like she was doing barrel rolls and flipping as she was swimming in fast bursts. After seeing this I am convinced something is up but I'm not too sure what to do from here. I can't get her eating to treat for IP's or anything so what should I do? All my water parameters are fine, ammonia-0,nitrite-0,nitrate-5-10 and ph-7.5 . Any help would be really appreciated. I have keept DP's for years and NEVER seen one act like she does. I am yet to loose a single DP out of all the ones I have keept and I don't want to start now

By the way, mods I'm not too sure why it posted my thread so many times. I do apologize for this and please delete the extra ones.

You suspected IPs and didn't quarantine?

No, I did not suspect IPs since he looks absolutely fine. I give all my Puffers IP meds no matter what when I first get them. Where did I say that I suspected IPs? DP was in my buddies tank for a long time which is healthy but he has to take it down since his landlord did not like him having one on the 2nd floor of the apartment. So rather then him giving her to someone random or an LFS I took her. Like I said before I am 98% sure it's not IP's but I always treat any new Puffer I own.

Sounds like it could be external parasites, by the way you describe her movements. She may have ich in her gills or something.
Either way, something is off and you'll have to treat the entire tank. You could try heat and salt, it's safer than any store bought medicine I feel.
Does she have labored breathing?

borgey wrote:No, I did not suspect IPs since he looks absolutely fine. I give all my Puffers IP meds no matter what when I first get them. Where did I say that I suspected IPs? DP was in my buddies tank for a long time which is healthy but he has to take it down since his landlord did not like him having one on the 2nd floor of the apartment. So rather then him giving her to someone random or an LFS I took her. Like I said before I am 98% sure it's not IP's but I always treat any new Puffer I own.

You said that you were going to treat her, so it sounded like you suspected IPs. If you are going to treat all your new fish, you should do it before putting them in the display tank with the other fish. Quarantine tanks are easy to set up and very, very important.

Yeah I'm going to setup my 10 gallon spare tank and put her in it. I'm going to take some media from one of my canister filters and put it in a HOB for her. I will start with aquarium salt and raising the temp. I also have some Levamisole powder that I purchased online from some Dr. that a member here referred me to. Do you think it would be alright if I did that along with the salt and heat or should I just do one at a time?

Not sure on that medication, but you will have to treat all the puffers now, they have been exposed, it's in the tank. You could still separate her for observation purposes, but treat all.

If she has ich/other EP symptoms, then you should definitely separate her. If the other fish are healthy, they can probably resist a brief exposure, but I would imagine that if she stays in and gets heavily infested, it would give the parasites a toehold to attack your other fish. I could be wrong, though.

Can you find out what she's been eating previously?