The Puffer Forum

1 male pea-puffer named Puffer-face/Buddy (real original, I know. Lol)

5 gallon tank

2 small led lights. One covered in blue vinyl to decrease light saturation. 12/12 cycle

Sand substrate

Lava rock/plastic plants decor

Tank mate 1 golden mystery snail

Tank is 2-1/2 years old. Cycled with fish food, java ferns (and snails who hitchhiked in) and established filter material from my local thrift store. Tank was set up and running for months before I introduced puffer-face

HOB filter (65gph)

Air driven submersible bio corner filter (40gph)

50% Water change every 10-14 days. Water is aged for 24 hours and conditioned with AmQuel plus. Heated to match tank water temps. Admittedly I have neglected water changes as of the last few months due to personal issues that have required me to be away from home frequently. So, roughly once monthly for the last few months.

Fed 6 days a week on defrosted blood worms and occasional snails gathered from a local fish stores plant tank.


PH 8.4

AMMONIA 0ppm

NITRITE 0

NITRATE 10

Approximately a week ago I noticed Puffer-face's belly looked a little sunken. I decided to treat the tank with API General Cure. Unfortunately I didn't do my research before treating and added meds directly to the tank as per API's instructions.
Treatments as follows:

API GC directly added to tank
48 hrs later 50% water change
48 hours later treated again with API GC
48 hours later 50% water change

Aprox. two days after last treatment I noticed that there was a "bubble" protruding from his left gil. Please see attached pic.

I continued API GC treatment for the next 3 days but this time soaking his blood worms in the dissolved medicine before feeding. He's always ravenous so he ate them with no hesitation.


He's eating with the same voracity and still very active and friendly but the bubble looks like it's getting bigger and his stomach is still has a sunken appearance.

Do you think it's gas bubble disease? If so, what can I do for my little guy? I've decreased his light cycle to 8 hours and changed his hob and air filter out for a small canister filter (105gph) with a spray nozzle to agitate surface.

Thanks for taking the time to read

He's now laying on the bottom gasping for air. I feel helpless! Should I try to pop it?

How's he doing today?

Update on Puffer-face

I was running out of time to save him and decided to pop the bubble which is believed to be gas bubble disease.

I sterilized an Xacto blade and netted him close to the surface and just touched the tip of the blade to the bubble. The bubble deflated and he swam off to hide.

The next morning he still wasn't looking well. I left home to run some errands and when I returned several hours later he was swimming around some. I attempted to feed him but after eating one bloodworm he went back to hiding.

2 days after popping the bubble he's swimming around more and eating regularly. The bubble membrane is still apparent in his gill but his breathing is much better.

As of today he's still eating well but his belly is still sunken. I decided to wait a couple days to treat him for parasites since he's been through so much the last week.

I'll update this post as things change.

Puffer-face is doing so much better! His little tummy is not as sunken after a couple treatments of General Cure (worms soaked this time)

I am so very happy he bounced back. To be completely honest I didn't have much hope at first. We're both very lucky he had a second chance.