The Puffer Forum

Hey all!
It' my first post as I finely got a dwarf puffer but unfortunately I have serious problems:
Parameters:
PH: 7.6 or a bit less. Ammonia :0 KH: around 15 GH>21 NO2:0 NO3:10 5 gallon.
Theres some scuds, ramshorn snails, pond snails and many detritus worms.
I just did a fish less cycle for a month and a half or so. did a water exchange. It's a Walsted tank and theres plenty of plants, rocks and an immersed mint plant above. I use a DIY c02 reactor.
I got the puffer from the store today. drip acclimated it for an hour and a half. seems fine. I let him out of the bag and he freaked out. glass surfing jumping at surface. after a few minutes he was belly up. I got so scared I was sure he's dead. I picked him up and put him in the other bigger tank with clown killifish and scarlet badis (juveniles) that I have running for a year. look dead. after a minute he came to life. slowly swimming at the top.he was like this for an hour but the male killifish kept trying to mate with him.... I tested the water again because I thought I might read wrong but it's the same in both tanks.
I put one of the female Killis in the tank to test how she react (acclimated and all) and doesn't seem like she freaked out. she stayed mostly at the surface but it's not unusual.
I thought its better for him and the other fish that I'll put him back. again, acclimated for an hour, turned lights of, put of the CO2 (thought maybe its too much but according to the table it' spoused to be fine. he seemed relax in the bag but stayed with his mouth out of water
now he's still like that, just moving around at the surface. looks like he just went a bit down but he keep going back to the top.
Ill see how he is tomorrow, maybe he just got a panic attack or something but I thought I better post it in case you got some advice on that.

He's still almost all the time at the surface and not eating. I'm thinking maybe he just miss his friends.. maybe I should get a female tomorrow to put with him...?

These fish do best with 5 or more but you need a heavily planted tank for it to work.

Look like my puffer is still ok but it's not very active and he's very shy and scared. He usually hangs at the front and looks at me but he's hiding a lot (looks like more then before) He's also breath heavily which I don't understand why... the tank is heavily planted and it shouldn't be an oxygen problem. He seems to eat fine but almost never from my tweezers. He get bloodworms, glassworms and there's pond snail population that he eat occasionally. He wouldn't touch daphnia and scuds apparently...
Water parameters are still good: 0 ammonia but looks like No2 claimed to 0,5 and NO3 at 25. Temp is 26c. Another thing is that he seems to be afraid of the dark and start glass surfing at lights off. I just put them on again until I go to bed.
I am thinking of adding another one.. maybe he needs a friend.
I think it's a male so I want to get a female. If I'm mistaken and it's two females, would that be a problem?
why is he so shy and breathing heavy- any advice? I cannot move him to a larger tank atm so it's a heavily planted 5gallons with rocks, roots and lots of hiding place.
Would love to hear the more experienced people here input. Thanks!

2 females are fine, it's 2 males who will fight. They actually prefer to be in a group.

Thanks Pufferpunk. I'll give it a few more days to see how it goes and maybe I'll get him some company.