The Puffer Forum

Ok, so I am new to TPF, but my porcupine puffer I go 3 days ago has been laying down, not eating and heavily breathing! All my other fish are fine too as ill list them rn.
Dogface Puffer - 1 month since added to tank (4 inches)
Cleaner Wrasse - 3 days since added (1 inch)
Green Spotted Puffer - 4 months since added (1 1/2 inches)
Anastasia Filefish - 1 month old (1 inch)
Talbots damsel - 3 weeks old (1 inch)
PJ cardinal - 3 weeks old (2 inches) SOON TO BE SOLD!
Water Quality:
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 0 ppm
pH: It was 7.5 yesterday and uppered it to 8.4 in 10 minutes after the testing.
There was no airator either as i added one yesterday for the meantime.
The temp was at 83 and I lowwered it to 78.
He swims around for like 3 minutes every now and then, but will lay back down later.
For the first 2 days I had him, he would swim around like normal.
Please help him!! Thank you!

How large is the tank? What are you using for filtration? How much live rock is in there?
Please answer ALL the questions above, in red.

I highly suggest against combining those species (or ANY puffer species), It never ends well... Are you absolutely sure the puffer isn't being picked on?

Yeah what size tank? I have 2 gsps, a porky, and a striped dogface in a 225 and luckily they seem to get along. They’re all under 2 inches though and I know I’ll have to move one or two out eventually. Lots of live rock to break up the space and for filtration.

Also forgot to mention, porkies seem to be the most shy of any of the saltwater species so it might be getting pushed around by the gsps. Before I put mine into the big tank, I took olive out who is my oldest gsp and about the same size and put them both into my 55 for a while so they would get along in neutral territory before putting them both into the 225