The Puffer Forum

We have a Mbu puffer in a 350 Liter Jewel Trigon tank whose about 16" long who has been a happy fish up until two weeks ago when we had a heater malfunction, I noticed one morning the room he's in felt a little warmer than usual and I could see he was breathing rapidly (heat gets rid of the oxygen doesn't it?). The tank was roughly 33°C so I immediately turned off the heater and let the tank stabilise during the day.

When I came home from work the tank had slowly started cooling down and he was still breathing hard and his belly was very dark so I imagine he was still very stressed. Now two weeks later after a water change with RO water, two new 200w heaters at either end of the tank and some nitrate filtering sachets to control the algae bloom he's perked up a bit, his belly is still a bit dark abound the edges and tail and his colour is kind of bland, though he is swimming around. The problem is he doesn't seem to be normal, he's now bashing into everything, missing his food (as if he cant see it) and is generally not himself, the water parameters were checked by a fish shop near my work and they said it was fine though I don't know what the values were because my mum took the sample of water in to them as we dint have any kits of our own (I'm probably going to get flamed for that). Has has been eating though as the cockles we place in there are being smashed open and the cockle inside has been eaten, but its as if he cant see them, we've had to feed him prawns by using our plastic eheim grabber and physically placing them in front of his mouth which he furiously eats so we at least know he's hungry.

We initially thought he was blind but the shop we took the sample in to suggested that if he was blind his eyes would cloud over, however he does have some kind of strange rainbow effect on his eyes, kinda like petrol.

What would the chances of him being brain damaged?! He isn't swimming upside down or anything, just bumping in to everything. I'd hate to lose another puffer to a dodgy heater, I lost two South American puffers in 2004 when my jewel heater cracked open overnight

Well, the first problem is you are keeping this fish in much too small of a tank. Mbu puffers need extremely, extremely large tanks. 90 gallons/350 liters will stunt it and cause health problems. How large is the fish now? You need to be prepared to decide if you can really keep this fish, the tank you have now will not come close to meeting its needs.

Are you sure it is a mbu? Check http://www.pufferlist.com to make sure.

What are your ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings? You need to know these. Taking a sample of water to the store is fine, but you have to get the actual readings. Their version of "fine" may be deadly to puffers, these fish are very sensitive to elevated readings.

I don't know enough about medicating to tell you what to do there, but the best thing you can do is keep that water clean. This means water changes, and lots of them. Start doing small water changes daily, using dechloriated, temperature matched water. Get that water as clean as possible, that is the best thing you can do for your fish until more experienced people come along to do some diagnosing. I don't think you should be using RO water to do freshwater water changes without reconstituting it first, but I don't know enough about it to say that for sure.

I agree with Myaj. What kind of water change schedule (how much, how often) is it on? Any time there is the slightest change if your fish's behavior, a water change is necessary. If he's still eating, there's still hope.

Be sure to read the Mbu story in our FW Puffer section.

well 4 liters to a gallon (estimating)
thats 87 gallons

at 16 inches. yeah id get a biggwer tank pronto and start the waterchanges as above.

Yes its a Mbu, we've had one before that we lost to White spot as we kept getting told conflicting information from our LFS about what to do. He's currently 16 inches but doesn't seem to be cramped in any way as the tank is more of a cube than rectangular so its as deep as it is wide but I will take your word for it being too small. I normally do a 25% water change every two weeks and use an eheim vacuum to siphon up bits of food every now and again between water changes. Its my parents fish but lucky me has been lumbered with caring for him though I cant always give him my full attention, and until recently (after no help from my local fish shop whatsoever, damn you world of fish!) we'd be getting incredibly fast algae blooms in the tank but was assured there was nothing we could do about it aside from keep the lights on for less time.

The only time we noticed a change in his behaviour was when the temperature of the tank had risen, my mum noticed the tank was warm but didn't tell me till the morning which I have told her has most likely caused this so she's a little upset about it all for not telling me sooner.

I am unsure of water chemistry values as when the water was last tested it was done by a different fish shop and I wasn't around to make note of them. Apparently the water parameters were safe aside from PH being a little high, I trust these guys more than the place we used to go as they have been FAR more helpful that World of Fish, the girl there has a Mbu too. We have since added some RO water to the mix and my ph kit tests as close to neutral as I can make out but as for other values I am unsure.

As for larger tanks, what would you guys recommend? I'd ideally like something more squarish to put him in if needed so he will have ample room to turn round in.

I've just been told a bigger tank is out of the question so we're going to have to give him a new home, do any of you know of any places he can go? I cant imagine anyone would want to buy him if he's blind

I agree fully with Myaj's post, and even on the sthings she professed to be unsure about, she was right on.

Water changes are life to large puffers. My T. mbu in 380 US gallons of water was severely under-housed and it took me at least 3 each 1/3 partials weekly to control the water conditions. They still were not as good as they should have been and as my other tanks are.

Medications do not seem to be needed. Optimum water conditions with appropriate water partials are the best support you can offer at this point.

I do 50% weekly water changes (minimum) on all my tanks. You'll have to get that puffer feeling better, before someone will take it. It is now your responsibility to find a home where the new owner will not only house it in at least a 500g but will do the proper maintenence for this monster puffer. Why in the world would your parents buy a puffer they couldn't properly house to adulthood???

To be honest i'm not sure, I made my mum aware that they grow very large before she bought him then all of a sudden "guess what I bought". I tried to make her aware but she always seemed to shrug off the idea of getting a bigger tank despite my warnings. It was all my mums decision as my dad was as suprised as I was, though Im not sure whether the fish shop i've come to hate made it clear to her quite how big they became, hell, another sale down the line for them.

Because this is down to me to fix can any of you give me any help in trying to get him better, I know I cant reverse his blindness or anything but i'd like to make things better for him while we still have him. I dont want this to turn in to a "what have you done to your poor fish" thread because it wasn't my choice to get him, i've just been lumbered with responsibility because my mum made a stupid decision and now cant make the time to look after him.

Your fish is probably not blind--just not enough large water changes in too small a tank.

Read my sig.

He's missing all the food and is constantly swimming round tasting the substrate. Food can be sitting right infront of him which he now misses rather than snapping it right up like he used to, also food can fall straight past him unlike before when he would easily catch it before it hits the bottom of the tank.

I'll see if we can pick up another 70 odd litres of RO water tomorrow on my way home from work. Do their eyes normally cloud over when they're blind? Do you use RO water for your tanks? If not what treatments do you use?

I use tap water for all my FW & BW tanks. Is there something wrong w/your tap water? Just make sure to match temp & dechlorinate it 1st. I bet your puffer will start eating after a few good water changes. Probably just isn't interested--stressed.

His belly has gone kinda dark and he's lost some of his colour which I normally assosciate with him being stressed so it could just be that. I'll do a water change tomorrow and see how he fares.

Cheers for the help

But not with straight RO water, please. You need Equilibrium or RO-Right or some comparable product at least, or a blend of RO and your tap water.

Straight RO only will stress the fish more than it is already.

RO water could be a big part of the problem. If the fish is doing so poorly, wht wait till tomorrow?