The Puffer Forum

one of three of my pea puffers is no longer eating or swimming. (she swims every once in a while but it’s not often and it’s for 3-10 seconds at a time)) the others are doing perfect on frozen bloodworms but this one refuses frozen. i resorted to mosquito larvae, which worked for a day, but she is no longer eating anything.

the only change in the tank is that i dosed my 20 gallon tank with general cure, but since they’re puffers i only used half the dose recommended.

i’m tempted to set up a hospital 2 gal and hope for the best. is there anything i can do for her? any products i should buy and treat her with?


water levels are
ammon- 0
nitrite- 0
nitrate - 10 ish ?
temp is at around 76-78

May I ask why you dosed the tank with General Cure? What symptoms were they showing? Puffers are VERY sensitive to meds, even at half doses. It sounds like the poor thing is very far gone at this point. Please answer ALL the Qs above, in red.

I experienced this with 2 out of 5 of my pea puffers. Sadly, they both died soon after they showed signs. Pea puffers are incredibly famous for internal parasites, especially if you are feeding live food’s (mainly snails)

based upon personal experience and many years of activity in this forum, it seems that many (if not most) dwarf puffers have IPs when purchased.
the amount of time it takes them to succumb to IPs has a lot to do with catching/distribution time & conditions/shipping/stress/water conditions.
some are captive bred, and probably the most likely to survive.
it's a shame that people don't often have this knowledge before buying them.