Can Some One Help Me With My Puffa"s B4 They Puffa Out A Time?

[Retinastorm]

Can anyone help me???
I have had my tank set up now for 1 1/2 years. Where I live, the petshops all sell the same things, so trying to get a variety of fish is hard.

When I recently went in my local petshop I seen dwarf puffa's which I couldn't resist & @ £4.99 each though I still had to have them. I bought 4.

Day 1, all looking good tropical tank heated 81/82 like it was in petshop so I thought fine!, all is good.
I had asked about the fish b4 purchased he told me about them being nippy etc but he had them mixed with fish so thought they would be fine.

Prob now is day, 2 one puffa toe up in tank!!
Later that night another one bites the dust!!
What the heck is going on

I have only got 2 left & dont want the going same way.
If anyone can help please email me.
They haven't been bothered by other fish, nor have they bothered other fish there just swim in there own space & chill.

 

[Synirr]

HAHA, "puffa". You know you're badass when you call them "puffa's". Street slang applied to fishkeeping strikes me as hilarious.

Aaaanyway... this is in the wrong section, but puffers are all extremely aggressive and dangerous to other fish, so your puffers are basically just doing what they are made to do. Chances are your remaining puffers will get territorial with your other fish and gradually nip them to death unless you separate them. I suggest taking either the puffers or the other fish back to the pet shop or getting another tank, because you shouldn't be housing them together, period.

 

[vancouver]

I think 2/4 puffers are dead if I'm understanding correctly..

I believe puffers like salt, do you have any in your tank? Could other fish be killing the puffers?

It's really hard to answer a question when you really don't know any details.

 

[KimA]

I've got some Dwarf Puffers - they're freshwater, not salt (although some other puffers are). They really should be in a species only tank as, mentioned above, they will be/are too aggressive to mix with other fish and will nip them to death. Not sure why your's are dying though - what are your water tests results, as they are very particular about perfect water setup?

Kim

 

[HendrixTheOscar]

You do realise the guy didn't say he had anything else in the tank did he? He may well have of course though nothing's going to beat up puffers.

I bought 4 Figure-8 Puffers from Tong Garden Centre in Leeds/Breadford and within a week or two they were all very VERY dead! I've no idea to this day what it was that killed them but they all looked like they'd swam through a massive cobweb and were coated in the stuff over their whole bodies inclusive of their eyes. My LFS didn't have a clue.

Good luck with the puffer's mate. I daren't get any more personally. other than overcrowding the tank i just don't think they'd last.

Apologies i can't help, i can only tell you what happened to me and that no-one else could figure it out

 

[vancouver]

''They haven't been bothered by other fish, nor have they bothered other fish there just swim in there own space & chill. ''

I figured that ^^ meant there are other fish in the tank. Anyways, you need to give more details if you want better responses.

 

[wendywc]

I think the dwarf puffer profile and FAQ will help you.

 

[ILM]

As KimA mentioned, dwarf puffers are totally freshwater fish. They are also small so a LOT of other fish can "beat up" on them. I rescued one (didn't live) from a pet store that had a big chunk bitten out of him/her. They are also scaleless so changes in water chemistry is going to affect them. As with any new fish, you need to quarantine any new fish, acclimate them to your water slowly. Make sure the water parameters in your tank is perfect--no ammonia, no nitrites, etc. Aquarium shops often keep unlikely fish in the same tank because, even if they should actually know the needs of a species, they don't have enough room to give each species what it needs--it's a business and they have a whole lot more fish then room. Dwarf puffers are quite territorial, especially the mature males (which is not to say the females are always more peaceful). They are also slower eater and usually don't swim as fast as other fish so, if kept with other fish, will often miss out on food. When they do eat, they tend to grab a piece of food, swallow as much of it as possible biting off what they can't easily swallow and letting the excess dropt to the bottom. Then they wait for another piece of food to drop from teh sky. So most of the time all the other fish will be eating all the food. Many wild-caught dwarf puffers have internal parasites which can kill them.

 

[nmonks]

Don't bank on it. I have South American puffer in my soft water community tank, and it has food stolen from its mouth by hatchetfish, and it is regularly chased into corners by a male ram. Puffer behaviour varies with the species, and even within species there is variation. Tetraodon mbu is famous for this: some specimens do fine in communities, others are far too aggressive.

I do have a pair of dwarf red-tail, red-eye puffers. See fairly robust but very shy at first, and easily startled. While freshwater puffers generally don't care about water pH or hardness, they do not respond well to high nitrates. Diet is important, too. Are yours feeding?

Cheers,

Neale

You do realise the guy didn't say he had anything else in the tank did he? He may well have of course though nothing's going to beat up puffers.

 

[Retinastorm]

The guy had said they should have been fine etc.
All of them are now dead. I tested the water it was fine. I was checking they were feeding & they were.
When they started dying I noticed a change in colour.
They went from bright in colour to as the other response I have had looked quite dull in colour like a fine coat of grey slime or something.
I have noticed quite a few tanks which he had, had signs on not for sale I had asked & he said they had white spot & the rest & he said he had recently got the puffa fish in but he said they looked fine. I have now been given my money back.
I just dont get it.
I done everything the pet shop said

No salt in the tank

 

[pica_nuttalli]

yeah... just because a fish doesn't show any symptoms doesn't mean that its not infected. keep a close eye on your tank; your original fish may have caught something.

 

[KimA]

Really sorry that you lost them all, that's a shame