The Puffer Forum

Hello everyone, and thank you to anyone who tries to help with this situation... I feel like a little background information is necessary so sorry for the possible length.

First of all, I have a 40 gallon tank that contains two puffers. They are happy little creatures who usually have bright colors and respond well to their habitat. I check the nitrate, nitrite, and ammonia levels frequently. They have a brackish water environment, and are doing quite well with it.
A few months ago, my roommate, without saying anything beforehand, decided to buy two other puffers of her own to add to this tank... Needless to say, it did not go over well and I was very upset about the whole situation. One of the newly added puffers was very aggressive and he killed one of my originals (my favorite of course). I realize that the puffers need about 15-20 gallons each and it just wasn't a very good situation..

Anyway, I placed the aggressive puffer into its own 15 gallon tank. After getting over my anger with him killing my favorite puffer and that whole issue, I started to finally get attached to him. Now, he has relaxed a bit and enjoys his solitude. He begs for food whenever I walk into the room, enjoys swimming up and down the sides of the tank as if it is his own personal roller coaster ride, and also takes pleasure in chasing the ghost shrimp I feed to him every so often. However, he has seemed a little sickly since the beginning of being at my home. 80-90% of the time, his tummy is black. He has also developed a growth on his back (this has been here for quite some time). The 'bump' at first seemed to be just something wrong with his spine or some kind of injury that was causing a little bit of pain. However, the other day I came into the room and he was lying on the bottom of the tank. He did not swim up to greet me until I got close. This was when I noticed that the 'bump' had moved to behind his left eye. Later in the day, it went back to his back and has been there since. My question is, does anyone know what this 'bump' could be? I was thinking that it was possibly a parasite-im also wondering if that is why he was so aggressive towards my other fish?

Today I did a cleaning of his 15 gallon and the 40 gallon tank (however, the ones in the 40 gallon tank are completely fine). I stopped by the pet store after doing a little research and decided to buy a tablet that dissolves in the water which kills parasites (Tetra ParasiteGuard). Other than the most of the time black tummy, and the 'bump', he seems to be fine. He eats well, greets me, is usually pretty happy seeming and swims around a lot. The Nitrate level was pretty high so after cleaning and cycling the water today I added some Prime.
1.)Based on the readings I just took, here are the parameters of the tank right now-
Nitrate-40ppm
Nitrite-0ppm
Chlorine levels are 0
Alkalinity-120ppm
pH-7.8
Salinity-1.008
Ammonia-.02ppm
2.) 15 Gallon, 1 green spotted puffer
3.) I change feeding them either chunks of frozen brine fish blocks(once a day or every other day), or sun dried RiverShrimp (1-2 a day). Every once in a while I will throw in a couple of live ghost shrimp.
4.) See above. Cycled the tank today and added Prime to lower nitrate, and also a dissolvable cube of algae killer and a dissolvable cube for ParasiteGuard.
5.) This tank has been running with him for several months now..Id say about 4-5. I add fresh water about once a week. Originally, the tank had a couple of mollies in it but they were moved once he got put in.

Again, Thank you so much to anyone who helps...I just want to know what is going on with him and to make sure he will be okay. He hasn't dropped over and he's had this for a while.. but it has seem to more recently bother him.
Will keep you guys updated if the ParasiteGaurd helps...

I'm not feeling well tonight, so I won't go into detail--I'll let the others. But I will post you some links to read:

library/puffers-in-focus/an-introductio ... d-puffers/
library/hospital/internal-parasites-pre ... treatment/
library/water-filtration/fishless-cycling/
library/water-filtration/emergencycycle/
library/feeding/feeding-your-puffers/

First of all, your tank should be cycled already. Prime is a water conditioner for tap water. You need to do water changes, not just add prime. Your nitrates are too high, they need to be less than 25ppm. Its probably too high for all these reasons.
1) over feeding
2) not picking up leftovers
3) not enough water changes
4) your tank is too small gsp's need 40usg each eventually, f8's need 15usg each.

The bump could be one of many things as these are wild caught fish, for now you have more pressing matters. Your ammonia should be at 0 always, big waterchanges regularly will fix this in time and will also solve your nitrate issues. These guys need 30 usg each puffers are messy creatures. Can you get us a pic of the bump?

defool89 wrote:First of all, your tank should be cycled already. Prime is a water conditioner for tap water. You need to do water changes, not just add prime. Your nitrates are too high, they need to be less than 25ppm. Its probably too high for all these reasons.
1) over feeding
2) not picking up leftovers
3) not enough water changes
4) your tank is too small gsp's need 40usg each eventually, f8's need 15usg each.

Thank you for the reply. The Prime I bought says "Saltwater and freshwater, removes ammonia, detoxifies Nitrite and Nitrate, provides slime coat." When I did a little research back, this was what I read that I needed to use. Am I wrong? Is there something that I can use to put in the water to rid of the Nitrates?
In the meantime, I will be doing a lot of reading and water changes.

bertie 83 wrote:The bump could be one of many things as these are wild caught fish, for now you have more pressing matters. Your ammonia should be at 0 always, big waterchanges regularly will fix this in time and will also solve your nitrate issues. These guys need 30 usg each puffers are messy creatures. Can you get us a pic of the bump?

This morning he was extremely lethargic, wouldn't eat and could hardly swim. Did a water change with most of the water, and he's back to swimming around and eating. But the bump is still there and he's pretty black colored today. He's very camera shy, but here's a few of the pics I could get-





I'm sorry if these are a little fuzzy or whatnot..I can try to get a couple others if you need..
Also, his tank light burned out this morning. Guess I will be going and buying that as well.
The Nitrate/nitrite levels were high again this morning-water was also cloudy- before I changed most of the water out.

The tank is not cycled. Grab a bottle of safestart, it will help get you out of trouble. Until then you will need to do multiple daily 50% waterchanges or you will be at risk of poisoning by ammonia or nitrite.

bertie 83 wrote:The tank is not cycled. Grab a bottle of safestart, it will help get you out of trouble. Until then you will need to do multiple daily 50% waterchanges or you will be at risk of poisoning by ammonia or nitrite.

I will pick up some SafeStart as soon as possible. I hope it helps.
Any idea on what the bump could be? The parasiteguard that I put in yesterday didn't seem to do much...it actually just seemed to upset him more.

If you add meds to the water it won't help too much, his food must be treated to be effective. However being wild caught fish it could be anything, I fear as it is under the skin and not in the gut it may not be treatable but I could be wrong on that so wait for someone else to chime in. Remember to keep up those waterchanges.

bertie 83 wrote:If you add meds to the water it won't help too much, his food must be treated to be effective. However being wild caught fish it could be anything, I fear as it is under the skin and not in the gut it may not be treatable but I could be wrong on that so wait for someone else to chime in. Remember to keep up those waterchanges.

Okay, I will keep doing the water changes and use the safestart as soon as I have it. Thank you for all of the replies you have been very helpful.

Has the bump moved or is it always there?
Before adding the Safestart, do a large WC & then add it directly to your filter.

The bump has moved from what I understand, not too sure on what that could be?

If it's under the skin & moving, then probably a nematode worm.

Did a water change and added the SafeStart.
The bump is deffinately moving. Though most of the time it stays on his back on the left side, it has moved to the middle, and also right behind his eye. He has seemed to be in a lot of discomfort when its that close to his face.
Currently he's chasing a ghost shrimp around in the tank. I was pretty sure that there weren't any left but there still seems to be one. He's enjoying the chase, but his tummy is still very black and the bump is pretty big.

I use prime too. Let me rephrase myself on that matter. Dont just add prime everytime the water goes bad, do a large wc weekly, and or partials in between. Use prime after every water change not just when nitrates go up.