Sick South American Puffer

[dan86]

Hi,

Yesterday I woke up to find my South American Puffer unable to keep his balance. He is constantly fighting to keep himself upright, and does not go very high in the tank now. It seems like he is having trouble keeping his back end down, as it keeps lifting up - as if he is doing a head stand.

He has no marks on him, no bloating and looks his same happy self but really struggling with bouyancy. I researched on the net and thought he may have a swim bladder problem. However, I visited my LFS's yesterday for advice - they both said it is unlikely to be his swim bladder as it would be unusual a puffer. One suggested he may have swallowed some air and the other suggested Interpret's Anti Internal Bacteria medication.

I left him over night to see how he is doing, and he is still exactly the same this morning. PLEASE suggest what it could be and things I could try - I feel so cruel not knowing what to do when he is obviously not ok. He has not eaten any food since having these symptoms. Carried out water tests - all fine.

Thanks, Dan.

 

[nmonks]

Usually when puffers lose balance it's because they've swallowed air. This happens when they're (clumsily) moved about. The cure, such as it is, is to hold them by the tail, head upwards, shake gently, and let the air bubble out. Apparently. Never done this myself, so I'm quoting from Klaus Ebert. I will warn you that holding any fish tightly causes damage to the skin, and this can in turn lead to secondary infections. So if you do decide to give this a try, be very careful, and look out for fungus and finrot afterwards.

Constipation is the most common cause of swim bladder problems. This is relatively uncommon among pufferfish because they don't have the long digestive system typical of herbivores. It's herbivores like goldfish and cichlids that get "clogged up" and need the extra fibre from plant foods to get things moving along nicely. Bacterial infections of the swim bladder are in fact rather uncommon.

Freeze-dried food seems to be particularly associated with constipation and buoyancy problems, perhaps because it contains air and swells up inside the gut. If you're using that type of food, stop for a while and see what happens. You might also want to switch to some high fibre foods as well. Daphnia and krill would be ideal. Don't use anything soft like bloodworms or shelled prawn. The more indigestible bulk, the better. It's important to understand that puffers don't eat soft foods in the wild, and they have evolved to process a lot of "junk" in terms of shells and exoskeletons. Most (all?) puffers eat some plant material in the wild as well. At least one of my SAPs enjoys frozen peas, so give those a shot. Peas are very good at clearing out constipation. You might also try algae wafers and spinach.

Provided the fish was feeding and showing no outward signs of distress or damage, I'd tend to leave things alone for the time being. Randomly adding medications to an aquarium is never a good idea. It's always best to try and pin down the problem first.

Cheers, Neale

 

[dan86]

Yeah thanks for the advice mate thats great!! Ive tried holding him upright and shaking him - two air bubbles did come out of his gills and mouth. For about 10 mins he seemed much better, but now he is still sitting on the bottom of the tank. His balance does seem a bit better but think there is still air in him as he is still not right.

Will see how it goes! Ive given him a pea too, he's not touched it but I will leave it with him!

Thanks again mate... fingers crossed!!

 

[DarkEntity]

If hes on the bottom he could be sulking, imagine some random person grabbed you by the legs and shook you about

 

[pandacichlid]

Usually when puffers lose balance it's because they've swallowed air. This happens when they're (clumsily) moved about. The cure, such as it is, is to hold them by the tail, head upwards, shake gently, and let the air bubble out. Apparently. Never done this myself, so I'm quoting from Klaus Ebert. I will warn you that holding any fish tightly causes damage to the skin, and this can in turn lead to secondary infections. So if you do decide to give this a try, be very careful, and look out for fungus and finrot afterwards.

Constipation is the most common cause of swim bladder problems. This is relatively uncommon among pufferfish because they don't have the long digestive system typical of herbivores. It's herbivores like goldfish and cichlids that get "clogged up" and need the extra fibre from plant foods to get things moving along nicely. Bacterial infections of the swim bladder are in fact rather uncommon.

Freeze-dried food seems to be particularly associated with constipation and buoyancy problems, perhaps because it contains air and swells up inside the gut. If you're using that type of food, stop for a while and see what happens. You might also want to switch to some high fibre foods as well. Daphnia and krill would be ideal. Don't use anything soft like bloodworms or shelled prawn. The more indigestible bulk, the better. It's important to understand that puffers don't eat soft foods in the wild, and they have evolved to process a lot of "junk" in terms of shells and exoskeletons. Most (all?) puffers eat some plant material in the wild as well. At least one of my SAPs enjoys frozen peas, so give those a shot. Peas are very good at clearing out constipation. You might also try algae wafers and spinach.

Provided the fish was feeding and showing no outward signs of distress or damage, I'd tend to leave things alone for the time being. Randomly adding medications to an aquarium is never a good idea. It's always best to try and pin down the problem first.

Cheers, Neale

Excellent advice given here.
I have two SAP's and haven't had any problems to date.
Krill is a good source of food, because it keeps the puffers very active cus it takes awhile to rip through.
Wafers are awesome I've found. My puffer loves it and it has seem to have shortened their teeth
Strong currents are good too, cus my two like to swim around in the flow.
I'm the sort of person that always checks my fish, but like you've been told don't add random medicine into the tank.
I hope he's okay now, by what I've read he's doing ok now
good luck