The Puffer Forum

I got home from work and my Mbu is lfeless on the bottom of the tank. Giant hard protrusion half way down his body sticking out. I think it swallowed a shell. Can't reach far enough down the mouth to get it out. Any suggestions? Has 5 minutes to live tops. I've been rocking him under an air stone.

There was a recent post about this here about a puffer that had a shell stuck in it's anus. It passed on it's own. Puffers eat shells all the time & pass them just fine. Probably not feeling too great at the moment, which is why it's just laying there. Now if this is a tumor or something, I can't help you. Can you post a pic? What makes you think it's dying? Is it breathing normally? I know you feel this is an emergency but can yo answer the questions above, in red?

Pufferpunk wrote:There was a recent post about this here about a puffer that had a shell stuck in it's anus. It passed on it's own. Puffers eat shells all the time & pass them just fine. Probably not feeling too great at the moment, which is why it's just laying there. Now if this is a tumor or something, I can't help you. Can you post a pic? What makes you think it's dying? Is it breathing normally? I know you feel this is an emergency but can yo answer the questions above, in red?

It died. I'm gutted.

What made me think it was dying was the fact that it was lifeless and gills pumping once every 5-10 seconds and

I sliced it open after it died and couldn't find anything wrong with it. I have no clue how a fish goes from happy and healthy to dead in 15 hours. It was totally fine last night.

Wow, so sorry...
What was in there where you saw the lump?

Pufferpunk wrote:Wow, so sorry...
What was in there where you saw the lump?

Nothing that I could see. I'm no expert on fish anatomy though. Nothing looked inflamed or discolored.

So sorry to hear about your loss.

Did you ever do the surgery to his tail?

Pufferpunk wrote:Did you ever do the surgery to his tail?

I did not. I decided to leave it be. I got to thoroughly examine it postmortem and it was just badly creased on the top few rays causing the whole tail to fold strangely when not splayed out.

I did extracted some large objects from mine before. Once was a huge piece of shell from the anus.. The other major thing was a whole crayfish from its throat. I had to knock him out that time.. It was a real traumatic experience for me... No fun messing with a 20+ in fish.....

Sorry for your loss