Puffers Stomach

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Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.

1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.

2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.

3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)

4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.

5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.

We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.

While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.

Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
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connorspuffer
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Puffers Stomach

Post by connorspuffer »

About 2 minutes after his eaten his stomach goes from...well what they look like when theyve eaten(puffer owners know what im talking about) to what it does before hes eaten if you know what i mean. Normally it takes much longer for it to shrink back down. It might be cause hes not full enough(as im only giving him 1/4 of a frozen cube) or he mihg thave caught something from his tank mate that had cloudy eye like IP...?
Im not sure though,it might be that hes getting the right amount of food whereas before i was givng him plenty of food (enough that theyd consume in 5 mins). Does this sound normal? Hes about 1.5"-2"

Thanks
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Re: Puffers Stomach

Post by Nick »

Probably internal parasites.
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connorspuffer
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Re: Puffers Stomach

Post by connorspuffer »

Ok,but his belly doesnt look sunken,its rounded still...
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Nusquam
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Re: Puffers Stomach

Post by Nusquam »

What kind of food are you feeding?
I find that when we feed our puffs food that they have to "suck" in, like blood worms or brine shrimp for example, they tend to get huuuuge tummies that shrink down really quickly, usually in a matter of minutes. I've attributed it to them accidentally puffing a little by ingesting so much water with the food, since they never do this with bigger foods they have to "chomp" like whole uncooked shrimp, or snails.
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connorspuffer
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Re: Puffers Stomach

Post by connorspuffer »

I feed live/frozen: bloodworm,brine shrimp,tubifex, cockle and sometimes beefheart;that sorta stuff. Feed them snails and river shrimp too.
Yeah that may be it....hopefully
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Re: Puffers Stomach

Post by Pufferpunk »

Are you defrosting it 1st? Maybe it's full of the ice/juice it's packed it & then it defrosts. You should always defrost frozen foods under water, in a brine shrimp net.
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connorspuffer
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Re: Puffers Stomach

Post by connorspuffer »

No i dont defrost the food first...
I got soem live foods today,fed some live breine shrimp and hes stomach stayed 'fatter' for a good while :D
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Boxermom
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Re: Puffers Stomach

Post by Boxermom »

Brine shrimp has almost no nutritional value and shouldn't be used as a staple. Think of them as potato chips for fish - good as an occasional snack but not as a main food.
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mojoevanilla
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Re: Puffers Stomach

Post by mojoevanilla »

Ive also heard that puffers dont need the high in fat beef heart, my DP along with my girlfriends 2 GSP's seem to love krill(freeze dried) the most, along with bloodworms(freeze dried and frozen), though i dont soak my frozen bloodworms, its kinda hard to soak 3-5 frozen bloodworms.
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Re: Puffers Stomach

Post by Boxermom »

I missed that. I definitely recommend against feeding beef heart or any other beef product to puffers. Its not a part of their natural diet and isn't good for them.
Tina

Puffers: Auriglobus silus x1, Tetraodon travancoricus x1, Tetraodon turgidus x1, Tetraodon miurus x1, Tetraodon nigroviridis x2, Tetraodon baileyi x2, Tetraodon lineatus x1, Tetraodon palembangensis x1
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Re: Puffers Stomach

Post by Pufferpunk »

Do not feed foods while still frozen. Not good for their stomach & the juices they are packed in raise your nitrates. Rinse it off.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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