The Puffer Forum

Well, unfortunately our puffer died, as did the 2 frontosas we had in the same tank (separated by divider). The only fish that lived was our pleco. My husband was told to medicate the puffer with maracyn, since the lfs guy said it sounded like a viral infection. I dont know if we acidently over medicated the tank, because 3 hours after he put the maracyn powder in, the fish ate, then were dead by 3:30 am.

I did a huge water change (about 60%0, added all the carbon back into the filters (a hang on filter and a canister filter), cleaned the gravel. My husband comes home last night with a new MBU. I wasnt expecting that and thought it was too soon. I havent checked the water quality yet, and was still doing research on why these fish died so suddenly.

This MBU wasnt in the best shape and certainly wasnt a puffer I would have picked. But the lfs guy bagged him up sight unseen since we were at work and my hubby picked him up on the way home. His tail looked ragged and his belly was round. Apparantly the puffer ate a lot of snails before we got him. He looked thin to me also. He was gasping and was at the top of the water a lot so we added a small air stone and when I went to bed he was swimming around. Well...about 4 am my husband woke me up...the puffer was DEAD!! So, I sent my hubby off this morning with the dead puffer and a water sample to have checked.

Nothing wrong with the pleco. Any ideas on what the heck is going on? I wont know more until I find out what is up with the water.

I would hazzard a guess at poor water quality and a poor quality fish that couldn't handle the water. Did you test the water and how long was your tank set up for? Anew tank is not an ideal home for puffers they really need a mature tank