The Puffer Forum

Hello everyone,

I have had my 60 gallon salt water tank for about 2 1/2 years now. I have had my puffer fish for about a year and the whole family adores him/her. I recently joined this forum to find out what is going on with my puffer fish. It has stopped eating and is becoming too skinny. I have read this information I have found on the hospital forum and currently working on adjusting my levels in my tank. Salinity and everything else seems to be okay but my nitrate levels are a bit high. I have always been told the solution for pollution is dilution for tanks so currently we are cycling the water more often to regain control. Anyways, I am happy to find a place dedicated to puffer fish!

Have you fed it any live foods at all? Any foods from the grocery store? I would treat for IPs: library/hospital/internal-parasites-pre ... treatment/

Yes. I try to feed it live minnows or ghost shrimp weekly. It is not alone in the tank and the other tank mates enjoy live food too. Usually the puffer is the dominate fish during living feeding but lately it has taken a backseat. The tank mates are a lion fish, yellow tang, lagoon trigger, tomato clown, bicolored angel,pacific tailfin tang, and a sea urchin. Everything gets along well and there is very little aggression towards the tank mates. Today I brought it minnows and ghost shrimp in an attempt to get it to eat since it was seeming lethargic. It is swimming a bit more right now.

Very possible for the minnows to carry disease.

What species puffer? How do its teeth look?

I did not know minnows carried anything beyond ick. It is a porcupine puffer. However, we found it dead when I got home from work this afternoon.

So sorry for your loss. :'(