The Puffer Forum

I feel really awful... my last puffer died of toxic poisoning from ammonia, and now.... my most entertaining puffer died! The ONE that is still alive is a mean female that hunts (which is pretty cool) but hides away in the corner all day and is afraid of everything (i.e. me -but I guess she has a reason to be scared...). She is very territorial land I've caught her nipping the ottos and somewhat the other puffers.

I think the recent one that died (my favorite guy) died from the dark (not literally). I turned off the lights in the tank thinking that it had been on for way too long (all day and night usually) and when I came back and turned on the lights he was on the top floating and the mean puffer was swimming in the open which she never does... Since my fave likes to swim into the current and air bubbles I'm thinking he may of over did it in the dark and couldn't see what was going on... He does not have any visible cuts or nips... However, his belly turned light green and yellow and he rests just under the water but faced upward as if he is going for air....

Temperature: 26 degree C
Nitrate: 0.08
Ammonia: 0
He also did not eat much from what I've seen.

Does anybody know any other plausible explication?

Also, now that my fave is gone, she is swimming into his territory and playing with the air bubbles like he use to... that b itch.

I can gurantee it was not a result of the dark. It is more likey one of two things, an infection or as you say adverse reaction to the ammonia. Can you post your water test results please

Really? but it checks out!!! What other damages can I look for to give you a better description..?
I edited my first post with the water info. and other info.. basically he wasn't eating.

That was a fast reply -I love this forum!

Well assuming the tests are accurate(not test strips) It would point towards an infecition of some sort or possibly a weak fish in the first place. I assume that these fish survived the original high ammonia levels and therefore the puffer in question could have suffered gill and skin burns from this and eventually he could not cope any more. This may fit in with the dark theory as there would be less O2 in a dark tank and he may not have been able to get enough due to the damage caused. I have to admit though it takes some leap to accepth the many if's and but's in that idea

Have a look for any bite marks and do you know that they are free of internal parasites? The fact that it was not eating was not a good sign and may have had an infection and was weak when you got him

I think you're right.

"Internal Parasites - There are a variety of medicines effective in treating internal parasites in pufferfish. If a puffer's belly looks "sunken in", then it most-likely has internal parasites. Make sure to avoid these puffers when selecting one to purchase at your local fish store."

He had a "sunken in" belly.

Thats a shame, I would strongly suggest you treat the other puffers for the same thing, its likey that all of them had IP's. Where are you from

Where all of the DPs together when you were having the ammonia problem? If so, that's likely the cause. It can cause damage that isn't always immediately apparent.

Yes, all the DPs together the whole time, but the only difference is that the other two swam more around the place... I think the last one might of got internal parasites from when I was cleaning the tank and some of the stuff at the bottom went all over the place...

They can't get intestinal parasites from you cleaning the tanks. They were either infected when you got them or infected each other. If one has it, everyone else in the tank will have it.

The tank was a previously occupied tank -in which I kept some of the water and all the substrate. At one point the tank was really murky and they were swimming in it... Is that still not possible for them to get sick like that? I called the pet store and they will not replace them...

Will the parasites spread in the water?

Segments and eggs if circulating in the water can end up in other fish, if they are pulled into the gill slits along with water or are eaten along with food, different parasites spread different ways.

You shoud consider treating the whole tank to be on the safe side IMO

My assumption would be your female is agressive and a more nocturnal hunter, he was probably weakened from the earlier ammonia poisoning and she took advantage of the dark and quiet environment to go on a hunting mission, with him as the target.

With the sunken belly though, I would definately read up on your deworming options. There's an article in the library that covers several choices. I'm one of the few people that routinely deworms all my fish every 6 months or so, since I feel they are a "grazing" animal that can easily pick up any eggs or parasites in their environment (unlike humans, who are generally pretty good at washing our dishes, utensiles and cooking our food to kill any nasties). Generally though if you keep stress levels down and do a one time, thourough deworming, you shouldn't have to worry about it again (unless you don't quarentine new arrivals properly).

I bought Jungle fish health -"Internal Parasite Guard".... I thought the sunken belly means that they've got internal parasites... or are worms also internal parasites type things?

"worms" is a common slang term for internal parasites (think tapeworm, roundworm, etc). There are many types of internal parasites but its a lot easier to say "deworm" than "de-internal parasite" hehe.