The Puffer Forum

I have had my two puffers for almost 2 months now. They seemed to be extremely healthy with veracious appetites and constant swimming around (but not listlessly). I have been trying to treat for IP (because I saw white poo) for about a month. I had done two weeks of soaking their food in Jungle Anti-Parasite tabs but still saw the white poo. I ordered some Flubenol-15 but it hasn't arrived yet. About two days ago I noticed that my one puffer (the one that died) wasn't eating, which was weird. Then yesterday my girlfriend was looking at the tank and alerted me to the fact that both puffers seemed to be on the ground fighting the current. I have a 24 gallon nanocube and the powerhead is designed for coral tanks so it is relatively strong. I had thought that they liked the strong current because they are always in the front swimming into it instead of being in the back where there isn't much current. Well I put a stocking over the outlet of the power head to diffuse it. The puffer just seemed to float around. It seemed like he wasn't using one of his gills as much. I checked water parameters and everything was fine (0 ppm on nitrates, nitrites, ammonia, and pH about . The salinity was 1.004 which it has been for about a week and a half (had been raising from freshwater over the course of two months).

So my question is what could have happened? Could he have given in to the parasites? He didn't look bloated or anything when I found him. His color was fine (white tummy, bright colors on his back). Hopefully the flubenol will get here soon. Could he have suffered exhaustion from fighting the current? There were safe places where there was no current.

I'm wondering about the 0 nitrates. Are you sure about those readings?

If I had to guess, I'd say it was parasites.

If you saw white poo, it could have been parasites. Kiwi, a GSP that lived with Shakespeare, died exactly as you described your F8 dying. Puffers that have IP's and keep eating stay fat and round happy looking, just eat RAVENOUSLY, and when the parasite load builds up too much, they die of internal damage, rather suddenly, instead of starving to death slow like.