The Puffer Forum

Good evening,

I am concerned and stumped as to what is wrong with Homer, our Tetraodon turgidus. We have had him for 10 days now and he was active and responsive up until friday. When i got home friday he had eaten a medium sized meal of night crawler and was sitting next to his favorite plant.

The specs on the tank are listed below (its a quarentine tank so i know its too small for long term maintence)

Puffer: 3 inches, good weight, dark muted color, rapid breathing.

Tank size 10 US gallons
Temp 79 degress F
Ph 7.6
Ammonia none measureable
Nitrite (test kit is MIA)
Nitrate (same as above LFS was out of them as well, so was wal mart )

Water changes 30 % weekly, day varies from friday to sunday

Foods: krill, night crawlers, bloodworms, shrimp

I'm stumped as to what it could be, i have melafix and pimafix and i'll try those after another water change tonight and hope that works. he's eating well and has good weight but over all he just looks sad.

thanks for the input, if i forgot anything let me know and i'll try to get it post asap.

jason

I would be doing larger water changes, but I'm not sure that this is entirely the problem. Has he been 'passing' food properly?

Good question i'll check the filter and around the larger decor for "signs" of that. thanks for the suggestion

I did add melafix and pimafix and he perked up a bit with that, but that consisted mostly of circling his plant four times and settling back down.

Jason

Heres what a Turg needs to be happy.
1.) A dark place to hide to escape the light. (clay pot or cave)
2.) Structure for them to explore at night
3.) Subdued lighting
4.) Perfect water chemistry
5.) At least a 20G tank, a 20L preferrable for plenty of horizontal room.

Ok thanks,

I'll wash up a pot for him tonight and get some driftwood from my collection for him to poke around in at night. I was wondering if he might have some noturnal habits I didnt take into account when setting up his Q tank.

I'll try to get a fresh test kit set and get the specifics as soon as i can.

Thanks for the input.

jason

Internal parasites could be a possibility too. Keep an eye on his feces.

I'd be worried about the 'night crawlers'. Where do you buy them, and can you be sure that they are pesticide-free?

Also, 10 days is the perfect time for Ich to manifest itself. Pay close attention to the skin and be on the lookout for 'flashing' (i.e. rubbing against objects). If white spots or flashing occurs, treat with salt. (see library)

i have been wondering about the crawlers myself, they are from the baitshop. I dont like to use red worms since they are fed on animals waste i have no idea what that would do to my tank. however the crawlers have a magic way with a lot of problem feeders. I'm going to offer him a little bit of mussel in a few minutes and see if he gets motivated for that.

On a random side note i put an emtpy mussel shell into my GSP tank and they love poking at it and keep searching for bits of food on it kinda cute to watch. Somewhat releaves the stress about Homer and his situation.

Jason

You may want to look into black worms rather than the crawlers. You can breed them yourself as well.

I'd be really wary of anything from a bait shop. Bait isn't intended to be a healthy puffer food, just a fishing lure.

Yeah i'm used to feeding native fish and critters like african lungfish that never seem to be phased by anything.

Were you refering to the little aquatic blackworms? i've been wondering how hard there were to breed i was moving some sand in my knife feeding tank and was finding small black worms. I'm not sure they came in from the bag with the last batch or if they are there as offspring.

He's still breathing fast but i've finished slowly adding medical lvls of salt in hope of treating anything that might be causing his distress. I remember back about a year ago i had a run in with gill flukes that gave me know end problems in my community tank.

Jason

See here for blackworm info: http://www.aquaticfoods.com/

I fed my Turg frozen raw people shrimp. Just go to the local market and pick out some invertibrates and you cant go wrong.

Mine pretty much eat's anything but crickets. Loves nightcrawlers.

Thank you for all the info guys.. Homer didn't make it.. we lost him Monday evening

yeah i didnt get to post yet cause i'm still bumming about that . i really liked that fellow...had a lot of character and spunk....well until the end that is didnt have so much spunk but still cute as hell.

time to stare at the humpback puffer he's cute and relaxing to watch

jason