Figure 8 Pufferfish with lump, maybe causing SBD
Posted: Mon May 26, 2025 5:49 pm
Please help my fish!
I noticed a lump on my figure 8 pufferfish about 3-4 weeks ago, and it has been growing ever since. It started out small, however now it is quite large. I've attached some pictures of what the lump looked like a week ago, so hopefully they are visible. About 1 week ago, I saw her not swimming as much, with her tail curled to one side, a dark belly, and mainly "resting" on the bottom of her tank with her head down and tail up. I am assuming it is swim bladder disease caused by the lump placing pressure on her swim bladder. She now mainly sits at the bottom of her tank, with her tail curled and her head down. Sometimes, she even wedges herself between decorations, I am assuming, to hold her still. She also would "blindly" swim into the walls of her tank, and even decorations once in a while. Today, her belly is not as dark as it was last week. When she eats, I see the lump move as she chews. When observing her gills, it looks like she is breathing hard (almost like a dog panting), even when resting on the tank floor. Even when she is fed the day before, she looks skinny around the base of her tail and belly area.
Water parameters: pH: 8.2, Ammonia: 0 ppm, Nitrite: 0 ppm, Nitrates: 10 ppm, Salinity: 1.004 SG (I am assuming it is so low because of the frequent water changes recently, working on increasing it to 1.008 SG)
Tank size: The tank was advertised as 20 Gallons, however after measuring its dimensions, it seems to be closer to 17 Gallons.
Inhabitants: No tank mates, just the 1 figure 8 pufferfish.
Feeding: I usually give her bloodworms or snails every night, following by a fasting day once per week. For the past few months, she has been fed snails about 4 times per week, and was fed bloodworms about twice a week. The snails are bred and grown in a separate tank at my house. I'd feed her 3-5 snails, depending on their size.
Water change schedule: 20% water changes are conducted every 2 weeks. Once every 6-8 weeks I will clean her tank very thoroughly, scrubbing all decorations, cleaning the glass, and picking out old snail shells. For these cleans specifically, I will syphon out about 40% of the water, clean and scrub the tank, fill the tank back up to the top, agitate the gravel, then syphon out about another 40-50%. When conducting these deep cleans, my fish is always in a separate tank.
Products and last used date: Nutrafin Cycle every water change (last used 17 days ago), Nutrafin Waste Control (last used 17 days ago), SeaChem Prime (last used yesterday, added after 10% water change conducted 2 days ago, and again conducted yesterday), SeaChem Stress Guard (last used today, added daily for 2 days), Melafix (unused). Note: I did not use Nutrafin products after the last 20% water change (3 days ago) because I did not want it to interact badly with the SeaChem products.
Recent changes made in the tank in the last week:
- For the past 2 weeks, she has only been fed bloodworms (I wasn't sure if the snails were hard to digest and caused indigestion, leading to the lump).
- This past week, once I noticed a problem with her swim bladder, I completed daily water changes. The first water change was pretty substantial, about 50%. All other daily water changes have been about 10-15%.
- I also am having her fast every other day, incase it is indigestion.
- The filter pressure and bubbler pressure have been decreased to prevent her from being pushed around by moving water.
- I am feeding her bloodworms in the day since she does not come to the top of the tank at night anymore.
Aquarium history: The aquarium has been set up for 4 years. I've also had my figure 8 pufferfish in this same tank for the past 4 years. I unfortunately cycled the tank with her in it... I was dumb and did not do all my research when it came to tank cycling.
I would love any advice/suggestions/comments/concerns literally anyone has! I am desperate and need to save my fish! Please help me save her.
I noticed a lump on my figure 8 pufferfish about 3-4 weeks ago, and it has been growing ever since. It started out small, however now it is quite large. I've attached some pictures of what the lump looked like a week ago, so hopefully they are visible. About 1 week ago, I saw her not swimming as much, with her tail curled to one side, a dark belly, and mainly "resting" on the bottom of her tank with her head down and tail up. I am assuming it is swim bladder disease caused by the lump placing pressure on her swim bladder. She now mainly sits at the bottom of her tank, with her tail curled and her head down. Sometimes, she even wedges herself between decorations, I am assuming, to hold her still. She also would "blindly" swim into the walls of her tank, and even decorations once in a while. Today, her belly is not as dark as it was last week. When she eats, I see the lump move as she chews. When observing her gills, it looks like she is breathing hard (almost like a dog panting), even when resting on the tank floor. Even when she is fed the day before, she looks skinny around the base of her tail and belly area.
Water parameters: pH: 8.2, Ammonia: 0 ppm, Nitrite: 0 ppm, Nitrates: 10 ppm, Salinity: 1.004 SG (I am assuming it is so low because of the frequent water changes recently, working on increasing it to 1.008 SG)
Tank size: The tank was advertised as 20 Gallons, however after measuring its dimensions, it seems to be closer to 17 Gallons.
Inhabitants: No tank mates, just the 1 figure 8 pufferfish.
Feeding: I usually give her bloodworms or snails every night, following by a fasting day once per week. For the past few months, she has been fed snails about 4 times per week, and was fed bloodworms about twice a week. The snails are bred and grown in a separate tank at my house. I'd feed her 3-5 snails, depending on their size.
Water change schedule: 20% water changes are conducted every 2 weeks. Once every 6-8 weeks I will clean her tank very thoroughly, scrubbing all decorations, cleaning the glass, and picking out old snail shells. For these cleans specifically, I will syphon out about 40% of the water, clean and scrub the tank, fill the tank back up to the top, agitate the gravel, then syphon out about another 40-50%. When conducting these deep cleans, my fish is always in a separate tank.
Products and last used date: Nutrafin Cycle every water change (last used 17 days ago), Nutrafin Waste Control (last used 17 days ago), SeaChem Prime (last used yesterday, added after 10% water change conducted 2 days ago, and again conducted yesterday), SeaChem Stress Guard (last used today, added daily for 2 days), Melafix (unused). Note: I did not use Nutrafin products after the last 20% water change (3 days ago) because I did not want it to interact badly with the SeaChem products.
Recent changes made in the tank in the last week:
- For the past 2 weeks, she has only been fed bloodworms (I wasn't sure if the snails were hard to digest and caused indigestion, leading to the lump).
- This past week, once I noticed a problem with her swim bladder, I completed daily water changes. The first water change was pretty substantial, about 50%. All other daily water changes have been about 10-15%.
- I also am having her fast every other day, incase it is indigestion.
- The filter pressure and bubbler pressure have been decreased to prevent her from being pushed around by moving water.
- I am feeding her bloodworms in the day since she does not come to the top of the tank at night anymore.
Aquarium history: The aquarium has been set up for 4 years. I've also had my figure 8 pufferfish in this same tank for the past 4 years. I unfortunately cycled the tank with her in it... I was dumb and did not do all my research when it came to tank cycling.
I would love any advice/suggestions/comments/concerns literally anyone has! I am desperate and need to save my fish! Please help me save her.