Green Spotted Puffers

[Becca]

Ok Puffer fans, I need your advice! First, let me fill you in on my setup:

I have a brackish tank in which I keep 5 Green Spotted Puffers. I feed them 2-3 times a day with Sally's Frozen Brine Shrimp (I believe it's Baby Brine, but without seeing the label, I forget). When feeding them, I take a portion of the frozen cube, put it in a plastic cup with some of the tank water and let it dissolve. I slowly release it into the tank over a period of 2-3 minutes. Between the 5 of them, they gobble up every last crumb.

Now, onto my problem:

One of my puffers seems to either be going through a growth spurt, or may be battling an internal parasite, I'm not sure which. Having not had Puffers before, I'm not familiar with the signs of a growth spurt, so I'm hoping someone who's familiar with them can tell me, from their knowledge, what I may be dealing with.

Here's what I see:

The only way I can really describe it is it looks like one of the puffers has been stretched out (from nose to back fin) - he's longer than most of the other puffers. But, the weird thing is towards the abck of his body (just before his back fin) it looks someone took their thumb and forfinger and pinched him there. I can't really think of a good way to describe it, so I probably sound stupid. I'll try to grab a picture of him when I get home from school tonight.

 

[SirMinion]

Puffers adopt this stretched out shape as a threat, or when curious. However I have no idea what this 'pinched' look to his back is all about.

Puffers have minute control over the epidermal muscles and can change shape at will, even down to producing flaps of skin to simulate eyelids if they need to wipe their eyes.

Perhaps your puffer is simple experimenting with this ability and has formed this shape intentionally.

 

[TorPeteO]

Another possible option is that your other puffers are beating this one to the food, and so the 'pinching' is its stomach, because it's not full. I notice a pinching in my dwarf puffers, but when they get some bloodworm in them, they take their normal rounded shape. Keep an eye on that puffer in particular next time your feeding, and see what's up.

 

[Becca]

I just fed the puffers and here's what I see:

the under belly gets a bit full when feeding, not nearly as full as some of the other puffers, but he's still got that "pinched" look to the back of him. The only way I can really describe it is by saying the area immediately infront of his tail fin looks like Michael Jackson's nose. (You know, clamped tight and shut.) He almost looks like he's mal-nourished...there are other areas of him that are thin, where the rest of my puffers are, well, "plump".

He's one of my new puffers, I jsut got him not even a week ago. I'm wondering if he didn't get much food at the distributor. (The LFS got him in the same day I bought him, they only had him in their tank a couple of hours..)

If it's a case of mal-nourishment, and I can confirm that he's eating well (He's an oinker!) how long do you think it will be before I see him start to fill out more?

 

[Chasing Puck]

Check his teeth--the fact that he doesn't completely fill out may indicate either parasites, or overgrown teeth. Wild caught puffers often have parasites, and are one of the few fish that I will treat preventatively in quarantine, no matter what.

 

[LittlePuff]

I'm betting on the internal parasites also.

Kim