New Pea Puffer stressed?

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Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.

1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.

2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.

3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)

4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.

5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.

We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.

While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.

Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
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Iggyimpaleya
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New Pea Puffer stressed?

Post by Iggyimpaleya »

Hello!

I recently got a new Pea Puffer to add to my 5 gallon tank. I introduced Pancake yesterday and since he seems to be breathing heavier than normal and is just swimming up and down the glass. I assumed he just needed time to adjust and was stressed from the short trip from my local hobby store to my home but he's continuing this behavior today. Not interested in the blood worms I tried to feed at all. (Tried yesterday and this afternoon)

The last Pea Puffer I had adjusted very quickly and had spunk/personality pretty much immediately booping snails and exploring everything in the tank but this baby just seems stressed and only wants to swim on the glass.

I hope I'm just being a paranoid fish mom and he will adjust but I wanted to post here to see if anyone had any ideas or had experienced this before.

5 gallon tank
1 assassin snail
Small pest snail population (bladder I think?)
4 cardinal tetras
And the newly introduced Pea Puffer
Tank has been established for almost 1 year with no issues.

API freshwater test results today:
Ph lowend: 7.6
Ph highend:7.4
Ammonia:0
Nitrites:0
Nitrates:10ppm (planned to do a small water change soon but with him possibly being stressed didn't want to push it)

Thanks!
Iggy
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Pufferpunk
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Re: New Pea Puffer stressed?

Post by Pufferpunk »

Was your last one housed with neons? They are a lot of movement for the fella.
https://www.pufferfishenthusiastsworldw ... vancoricus
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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Iggyimpaleya
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Re: New Pea Puffer stressed?

Post by Iggyimpaleya »

Yes. My last one did just fine.
You think the tetras are bothering him? I never knew it could bother them!
I mean it's only been 2 days now. He basically started this behavior as soon as I introduced him. He hasn't even seemed to notice them between all his swimming with his reflection in the glass and they've always kept to themselves. Maybe I just lucked out with my last baby. 🤔
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Pufferpunk
Queen Admin
Posts: 32755
Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
Gender: Female
My Puffers: Filbert, the 12" T lineatus
Punkster, the 4" red T miurus
Mongo, the 4" A modestus
2 T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
Also kept:
lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles
Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
Location: Chicago
Contact:

Re: New Pea Puffer stressed?

Post by Pufferpunk »

Did you read the article I linked? They need to be in groups of 6 or more.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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Iggyimpaleya
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Joined: Mon Feb 28, 2022 7:00 pm
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Re: New Pea Puffer stressed?

Post by Iggyimpaleya »

Yes, I read the article. That is the first time anything I have read has said that in all of the reasearch I have done online over the years and like i said i have had a pea puffer previously and he did just fine alone. I can not put 6 pea puffers in a 5 gallon tank and until I move into my new home i do not have room or money for anything bigger. So it is not an option right now but something i will keep in mind for the future.

I was concerned about his breathing and swimming habits as i have only had this one for 2 days and he is behaving very differently than my last puffer.
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Pufferpunk
Queen Admin
Posts: 32755
Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
Gender: Female
My Puffers: Filbert, the 12" T lineatus
Punkster, the 4" red T miurus
Mongo, the 4" A modestus
2 T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
Also kept:
lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles
Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
Location: Chicago
Contact:

Re: New Pea Puffer stressed?

Post by Pufferpunk »

Turn down the lights for now.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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Iggyimpaleya
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Joined: Mon Feb 28, 2022 7:00 pm
Location (country): United States

Re: New Pea Puffer stressed?

Post by Iggyimpaleya »

My lights are already dim as to not stress the tetras but I will keep them even lower and see if his behavior improves.
I will also do my regular water change to keep Nitrates down as well.
Thankyou for the help and information. I wish I had found this forum sooner.
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Iggyimpaleya
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Re: New Pea Puffer stressed?

Post by Iggyimpaleya »

Update. I got some live brine shrimp and Pancake seemed to perk up. He went into a little hunting mode and was exploring the tank looking for them. He also doesn't seem to be breathing heavy anymore. Did a water change and Nitrates are down somewhere between 0 and 5.
User avatar
Pufferpunk
Queen Admin
Posts: 32755
Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
Gender: Female
My Puffers: Filbert, the 12" T lineatus
Punkster, the 4" red T miurus
Mongo, the 4" A modestus
2 T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
Also kept:
lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles
Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
Location: Chicago
Contact:

Re: New Pea Puffer stressed?

Post by Pufferpunk »

Wonderful!
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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