The Puffer Forum

I’ve had 10 gal tank for 2 months now, with two dwarfs and 2 oto and 1 shrimp. I have moneywort, java fern and anubias as well as some random long grass.

2 weeks ago, one of the fish just blasted all over the tank going haywire, then turned clear for a bit while limp and floating sideways looking like death. It eventually recovered after about a week and all the other fish seemed fine. I thought maybe the two fought because I saw it puff up a week prior for the first time, but couldn’t be sure what caused this.

Today I noticed little green anemone looking polyps in there on grass so I thought it was maybe hydra and cut most of the grass blades w these organisms. Then I did a water change and all the fish were acting normal.

My OTHER puffer did the exact same lightning bolt spaz around the tank, about 3 seconds of just going insane and then turned white and limp... about 2 min go by and it slowly gains color and swims away slowly hiding in a cave.

I saw the entire thing happen and there was no fight, he jus swam through a hole in my driftwood and something triggered it ... it’s almost like they get sppoked they way they dart all over the place. But they both are very personable and love begging for food etc. and it’s very odd it happened to both on separate occasions 2 weeks apart

Otos, snails and my ghost shrimp are fine, parameters are fine... could those green anemones be the culprit? Was thinking maybe they mistake them for a worm and ingest it or something???

Please answer ALL the Qs above, in red. "Fine" will not do.
Any way to get a good pic of those things?

1) Your water parameters - going to LFS in 4 hrs, will report back. i go to them every 2 weeks just to test and they always say everything is perfect, the tests are almost always at the lowest color spectrum

2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. 2 oto, 1 ghost shrimp, 2 anubias, 2 java fern, 2 dwarf puffers, moneywort

3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank - i do about 2 gallons every 2 days, just tap water, maybe once a month ill do 2-3 drips of prime and flourish. literally 2 drops

4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so - i believe i added the moneywort about a week before.

5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? set it up on christmas, put some fish food in for a week, bought an anubias with lfs water just to get some of their bacteria, added 1 fish after the readings were minimal (about 3 weeks). added 2nd fish 2 weeks later when params were still invisible. added 3 otos about a week after, param still good according to LFS tests. 1 died after a week, other 2 are thriving.

i will note two things: the first puffer went wild after i had left cucumber in there for my otos for 1.5 days... when i was pulling the cuc out, it dissolved a bit so i did a water change to get the muck out... it spazzed out immediately afterwards.

the second puffer spazzed out yesterday after i did a water change - although i did do something different - i used a turkey baster to 'blow' some gunk out of my drift wood and there was quite a bit of gunk floating but the water cleared within maybe 20 min. but he did spaz out right after this.

today they both are swimming a bit but hiding in the back, but definitely alive. at first i thought maybe it was their fighting (theyve been getting along now for a few weeks w no nips, attacks etc) but now im wondering if these water changes are stirring up too much sediment and hurting them? i just figured the shrimp or oto's are more sensitive and would die or show symptoms first, especially the shrimp...

https://imgur.com/joG8SXk

this is the only photo i have right now since im at work... and i almost strictly feed them live blood worms, every other day... i drop about 2-4 worms in and then get nice and fat. i do have 2 frozen foods (mysis and blood worms) but it seems so much messier than directly feeding them worms. i feed the oto's hikari sinking wafers about every other day, 1 or 2 tiny pellet wafers

quick update, went to LFS and water is perfect still. he hadn't heard of any of these things happening before but said fish can have heart attacks - but I'm pretty sure I found the culprit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wugQPHQRVpE

hydra are those green polyps i was mentioning, after seeing that video ^^ that is EXACTLY what happened to both puffers on separate occasions. besides my ph slightly low due to driftwood, params are all undetectable. I am going to treat my tank with fenbendazole and hope for the best. It will be here in 3 days, I will post a follow up just in case someone else ever has this problem. but I am 100% sure they are getting stung, because I saw it happen the second time and there was literally no reason it freaked out like that. this 'hydra' must have hitch hiked on my moneywort because ever since adding that, they've been very shy and I'm guessing they may get stung more than I know... feels bad but hoping this treatment works.

I really do wish you'd post the exact parameters, other than "perfect". The darting behavior signs are similar to nitrite poisoning. You really DO need your own test kits.

It does make sense that the hydra is the issue though.