Is My Pufferfish Ok?

[Marine/Freshwater?]

My new figure eight puffer is eating and looks great, but last night it curled up at the top of the tank and started to fall to the bottom. One of his fins stoped working too. This little episode lasted only about 30 seconds. He seems fine now. Still eating alot. I am really pissed because the place i bought him at lifted him out of the water. I even told them not to. They are really stupid. I think maybe my puff has gas. My last figure eight liked to puff with air in the middle of the night. I always used a net to hold him under water.

 

[Straydum]

i wouldnt worry so much now that u mentioned hes okay

 

[nmonks]

My puffers sometimes do the "don't move one fin" thing for a while. It goes away by the next day. Perhaps they sprain their fins? After all, those little pectoral fins really do whizz about!

Oh, and your comment on gas might not be far off the mark. Many (most?) pufferfish eat some plant material/algae in the wild. Partly indirectly, in the food they eat, but apparently also deliberately. If you visit fishbase and read around some of the entries, you'll find that what we *think* they eat in the wild isn't precisely what they *actually* eat. So by all means try some green food. Some puffers go for peas and algae wafers. Mine don't like algae wafers, but they will eat the odd pea. You should certainly try feeding whole mussels, as these contain quite a lot of algae in their guts.

Cheers, Neale