The Puffer Forum

my 1 inch fahaka just got done having a piece of snail and immediately started swimming around with his tail up in the air. twitching a lot. and he keeps floating to the surface. he was perfectly fine before he ate!

Where's the snail from? Just to rule out poisoning from pesticide etc...

It does sound like a possible poison effect sowe can't rule that out. Please answer all the questions in red above. We will try to work this out for you

well he seems fine this morning. i thought for sure he was done for. he was even floating upside down at one point. the snails are from me breeder tank that all my puffers have been eating for months. he floated into the corner upright so i just let him sit and digest. and about 30 minutes later i gave him a little poke and he started swimming just fine. its almost like he had air in him the way he was having trouble staying under water. very strange.

It quite possibly could have been air, keep a close eye for a couple of weeks to be safe

how would he get air? eat too fast maybe? i crushed the snail so there shouldnt have been air in his shell.

If he ate it at the surface he may injest air. You shouldn't need to crush them

it was at the bottom he ate it. i crushed it cus it was to but for him to crush with his mouth. hes only about an inch.

If its eye sized he will crunch it lol,