The Puffer Forum

About four weeks ago I bought a 6 in spotted puffer from a locally owned pet shop. The first night I had the puffer it's belly went back to white almost within four hours of dropping it in the tank. The next day back to a black belly. Then it started getting real sick, cauliflower on all of his fins. Attitude and eating diminished. I took it back to the pet shop and the owner kept the puffer for five days nursing it back with a variety of meds. On the fifth day I picked it back up.

So back in my tank, mind you I have testing water this entire time and everything checks out great. The puffer seems happier but still hasn't returned to a white belly. It still spends most of it's time resting on the bottom of the tank. In no particular spot. It is eating shrimp and krill, once daily, and this is pretty much it's only activity. From my research this seems to be pretty normal for fresh water puffers (except of course for the color), however I have another of same type of puffer in a smaller tank that is doing great and constantly moving about.

New problem, and the main reason for this post. He has developed a lump on his belly bellow his pectoral fin, white in color about the size and shape of your average black eyed pea. Now I do not believe it to be a fungus because the color of the lump is only the pigment of the puffers skin. It isn't furry or hairy and there is no redness.

It started out as a small bump I noticed after a feeding, only the next it didn't go away and then only got worse. The puffer has been in this condition for about four days now.

I have since moved him from the display tank to a quarantine tank. Salted water and increased the heat in the tank. His condition is only getting worse. If anybody has any ideas please let me know, I feel his days are number.

Thanks, Ryan

Please start out by reading the top post in this forum & answering as many of the questions as possible. Many times puffers develop cysts that eventually dissolve. There is also an excellent article on GSPs in our Library.

If you are keeping a fully grown GSP in fresh water, that could be part of the problem. At that size they should be at or above 1.015. If he's not already in a heavily brackish environment made with marine salt mix(not aquarium salt) moving him in that direction is probably a good idea. Not all at once, .002 per week maximum. This is just a to start you in the right direction, read as much as you can about GSP's and do answer the questions as Pufferpunk suggested, that will help everybody help you.