The Puffer Forum

Hi

I'm new, please be gentle.

I have a figure 8 puffer, on his own in a 70L tank. It is freshwater. There may be a couple of the white snails in there, but to be honest he eats them as soon as they go in so doubt any are actually living in there.

We had a big issue with cyanobacteria that we have been fighting for months now. He's been having weekly water changes, with tank cleans and thanks to Blue Exit treatments we seem to have gotten it under control. The tank is at the start of a Blue Exit treatment at the moment (water change and first treatment on Saturday).

We recently finally got a large piece of wood in the tank to give him some entertainment. This seems to still be leaking some tannins and have white fungus, despite our boiling and soaking of wood prior to putting it in. The shop keeper has assured us this is fine and if we keep up on the water changes it will stop.

On Saturday we also managed to finally get the tank planted up so that he has lots of entertainment (the cyanobacteria had killed most of the plants we started out with).

He is fed with pieces of frozen shrimp, frozen blood worm, or live snails from our community freshwater tank.

We haven't done the water parameters recently. I will get my husband to check this as soon as he finishes work and will then add to the post. The tank was cycled before any fish were put in, and has been running for maybe 3 years. It had a male fighter to start, then a dwarf puffer and finally this figure 8 puffer.

Ok that's my background info. Now the problem. Our F8 puffer has now twice been seen on his side on this wood with his tail curled around him. He sits very still like this for quite a while. We've never seen him do this before, only since the wood has gone in. Is it normal? Is he ill? He seems active an fine after but we've had him a year and never seen this behaviour before.

Thank you

Dans

Could you post a picture of how he is laying?

He's been swimming around happily since I posted , next time he does it I'll post a picture. Thank you

Dans

He may be sleeping but the fungus on the wood suggests that it is rotting - does it still have the bark on? If so this should be removed. Did you collect it yourself?
I don't know what Blue Exit contains but try to avoid putting additives in your tank if you can. I used to suffer with cyano. & I managed to get rid of it by upping the flow in my tank so it is worth trying to upgrade your filter or adding a pump.
Lastly your figure 8 will benefit with a little marine salt. If you maintain your salinity around SG1.003 you will still be able to grow many plant species.

I agree--NO MEDS!!! And remove that horrid fungused wood.
What you describe is your puffer sleeping.

I didnt think cyano could live in fresh only salt could be wrong though. As far as the wood get rid of it. I went through the same thing with a peice of mopani that i ended up boiling close to 8 times before giving up and getting something else. Save yourself the hassel and get another peice. I agree with the prior posters no meds and start raising your salinity.

Welch4 wrote:I didnt think cyano could live in fresh only salt could be wrong though. As far as the wood get rid of it. I went through the same thing with a peice of mopani that i ended up boiling close to 8 times before giving up and getting something else. Save yourself the hassel and get another peice. I agree with the prior posters no meds and start raising your salinity.

Cyano can definitely live in fresh water but it appears to prefer sluggish water movement.