The Puffer Forum

Hi,

I'm new to his site and need some help. My fahaka puffer has been show symptoms of being sick and I cannot identify what is wrong with him. He has redness around his entire mouth, has stopped eating, sits at either the bottom of the tank or floats on the top, and appears to have what looks like bumps or white spots in some places such as his back. I have been watching the redness for about two and a half weeks and has been getting worse (kind of like spreading around his mouth) and he hasn't eaten in five days. He also has "fits" in the tank on occasion - thrashing around violently (I've had him for three years and never saw this behavior), thrashing around in the tank in circles, running into rocks in the tank, etc. Also, last night I noticed small white worms crawling on the glass of the tank.

I have tested the pH of the tank for the past two and a half weekks and it has been stable at 6.8. He is the only fish in a tank of 170 gallons. I feed him frozen krill five times a week and snails or small feeder fish twice a week. I did move about 5 weeks ago but made sure the tank had cycled through before I put Howie back in. I have not added anything to the tank since I moved and the tank contains no salt, etc.

Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks!

Ok. The white worms are planaria.

If you have those then you high high nitrAtes and probably ammonia.

That means more maintenance needs to be done on the tank. Puffers need weekly water changes.

Now the puffer is stressed due to the water conditions and is getting sick from that.
The flashing is a symptom of bad water quality as well as the secondary "infection" around the mouth.

There are also nutritional issues here. Krill & feeder fish are not appropriate for a fahaka nutritional wise. He also needs way more crunchy food and his teeth may be overgrown to the point were he can't eat.

You need to start doing more water changes ASAP and get a liquid test kit so you will know your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels.

Fahakas aren't fish eaters, they are bad for the liver and if you compromise the bodies filtration, you're making it more prone to illness. Feeders may carry a lot of bad junk.

Have you gotten those test kits? How is he now?

Have you gotten those test kits? How is he now?