The Puffer Forum

hi everybody..

please forgive me but im totally new to puffer keeping. i rescued Bruce my fahaka off ebay believe it or not! his owner didnt want him as he was eating all his other fish. i saw him and had to rescue him.

he is about 3-4yrs old, 11inches, In a 4ft x 2 x 2 tank with lots of plants and smooth gravel.

ph =7.1
no2= 0.2
nh3/4= 0.6
no3= 6
temp 25 C

sorry this is as best as i could do the readings !

i got told adults should only be fed 3times a weeks but Bruce was fed by previous owner everyday, so i ve cut back but carried on.

however sometimes he looks as is he is out of breath or labored breathing.....I'm worried something is wrong.
could it be that hes fat?

please help I'm trying my best and love him to bits......

Welcome to the site


Firstly good choice of tank size.
Ph is fine, you could do with getting those nitrite and ammonia readings down as they are particularly sensitive to them and they may be causing him some problems. Daily water changes may be in order, 50% if you can and see if his breathing alters after you have done a water change. Keep this up until you get zero ammonia and nitrite readings and hopefully all will be well.

Does this happen all the time or after feeding especially? A simple thing to do to increase the oxygen levels in the tank is to get the water surface to ripple. Another poin to note is that warmer water holds less available O2 so check the temp of the tank and lower if excessively high

thank you so much i think you may be right i ve only had him 2 weeks and done 3 water changes of 30%. and yes his breathing seems ok after the water change. ill give it a go now.....thank you !

Did you cycle the tank? Where do you live? If you live in the US, try to find some Biospira at a local fish store (LFS). If you can't get some Prime if you don't have any already and use that to help detoxify the ammonia and nitrites so they don't stress and/or kill him.

i live in the UK, sorry how do you mean cycle the tank? i put water conditioner in and biological enhancers. its not a new tank, and i rinse out the filters every other day in water from the tank....

Don't rinse out the filters that often. Let the gunk build up for now, I dont' touch them for a month while establishing a new tank, so bacteria have time to get well seated.

Cycling is the process of building up the needed good bacteria to convert the toxic ammonia from their waste into also toxic nitrites and then into less toxic nitrates. There are several articles in the library about the nitrification cycle. Puffers are extremely sensitive to ammonia and nitrites. Biological additives don't work. The only one that does is Biospira, which unfortunately isn't available in the UK yet unless you special order it and pay for overnight shipping.

Get Seachem Prime though to use as your water conditioner if at all possible. That will help.

hi everyone hanks so much for the advice ...i ve done a water change and nitrates have dropped etc...but hes still not breathign right ....

ill stop rinsing out the filters so much, but what else could it be????

Could you post a picture of this guy id love to see him.

I think he sounds stressed out. New puffers often take a fair amount of time to adjust to their new environment.

I would suggest doing 50% water changes weekly since you said it seems to help.

You may need a better/larger or more filters on there. I have 2 large HOB filters & a large canister filter on mine. My 12" fahaka eats 1-2x/week.

i have two filter in very good order... one fluval and one biolife? are these any good?

also if i dont feed him everyday he throws a massive strop and starts pulling up the plants and spitting gravel at the tank! hes a little monster and knows how to get what he wants....


im trying to feed him a little bit every day rather than a lot.......???

oh also ive carried out a water change yesterday and today and nitrates are still at


no2 0.4
no3 20

what can i do?

Just keep up daily water changes, and use Prime as your water dechlorinator, only add about 4 times as much as you need - it will neutralize the ammonia and nitrite without disturbing the tank cycle.

ive been buying water from the LFS which is ph 7 and striped of all chlorine etc .....silly i know but the water is so hard in oxford that its worth it