The Puffer Forum

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

Was your last one housed with neons? They are a lot of movement for the fella.
https://www.pufferfishenthusiastsworldw ... vancoricus

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.

Did you read the article I linked? They need to be in groups of 6 or more.

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.

Turn down the lights for now.

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.

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.

Wonderful!