Help :( Dwarf Pea Puffer is sick... I think

[mawisafish]

Hello! I am at work so I am unable to provide images or parameters at the moment but I wanted to get this thread started in hopes I could find some help...

My boyfriend's dwarf puffer fish appears to be sick. He is swimming erratically and that is really the only symptom I have been provided with so far. I will add information later to this post once I get home and have more info and images, but I wasn't sure if anyone had any general knowledge to give regarding Dwarf puffer's and erratic swimming. Erratic swimming being he's swimming at abnormal speeds in weird motions throughout the entire tank.

Tank info:
1" Dwarf pea puffer, ~3 Cherry shrimp, ~2 ghost shrimp (shrimp are also about 1-1.5" long)
5 gallon medium planted Nano tank (Ferns, various moss, and other fern like plants)
Decorations include a SpongeBob pineapple and a hallow piece of driftwood going through the entire tank
He does a 25% water change about every 2 weeks or so. He also only feeds his tank about once every other day.

Any ideas or help? I'll be sure to include more info later

Thanks

 

[mawisafish]

I forgot to write too he keeps the tank at 76 degrees F constantly. It also has an airline tube.

 

[Colin_T]

BASIC FIRST AID FOR FISH

Test the water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the biofilm will contain lots of harmful bacteria, fungus, protozoans and various other microscopic life forms.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week or until the problem is identified. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in. It also removes a lot of the gunk and this means any medication can work on treating the fish instead of being wasted killing the pathogens in the gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash the filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn. Cleaning the filter means less gunk and cleaner water with fewer pathogens.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration to maximise the dissolved oxygen in the water.

Post pictures and video when you can.