Porcupine Puffer not feeling well

jasonrusso · Nov 13, 2019

About 2 weeks ago I noticed that my Porcupinefish Andy wasn't eating as voraciously as usual. He is usually out of the water spitting at me when he sees his food cup. His eating slowed and I noticed him being more selective of what he was eating. Last week, I noticed that his breathing was heavy and he wasn't really excited to eat. Last Thursday, he didn't eat at all which was a first.

I went to the store and bought him fresh mussels, clams, and oysters. He ate alot on Saturday and Sunday. He ate a whole oyster the last 2 days. When he finally decided to eat it, he hoovered it down but he had to think about it.

I truly don't think it is crypt or velvet as he had that 2 1/2 years ago and it looks nothing like that. He has a few spots on the tip of his dorsal fin that I am contributing to stress. I took a picture of it 10 days ago and it is the same. Crypt or velvet would fall off or spread. There is also NOTHING on his body.

I tuned the lights way down to see if he was stressed by the bright lights. He sleeps in his spot all day, but I see him out swimming around at night. He is also at the top of the water around feeding time which to me is a good sign, but the heavy breathing troubles me. The respiration speeds up after he eats as well.

I was assuming there was something intestinal. Maybe a parasite or worms. I fed him food with GC/Focus for 3 days. When I didn't see any change I stopped because I don't want to make matters worse by over medicating. I also don't see any stringy poop. I'm wondering if he ate a clam shell or something (he crushes them up, and I know he swallows some of it) and somehow injured his stomach.

Here is a video of Andy (this is after he ate so he is breathing a bit heavier than before). You can see the spots on his dorsal fin for reference. I also posted a picture from 2 1/2 years ago when he had velvet. This looks nothing like that. He was treated with CP for a month and the tank was fallow for 70 days. All the other fish (7) in the tank are fine. I have a jet black angler that would be a canvas for a parasite and I have a tang that has not indication of a parasite.

Humblefish · Nov 13, 2019

In your photo, it looks like he has white dots all over him.

LAReefer4Life · Nov 13, 2019

Humblefish said:
In your photo, it looks like he has white dots all over him.

+1 I see spots all over the body.

jasonrusso · Nov 14, 2019

jasonrusso said:
I also posted a picture from 2 1/2 years ago when he had velvet. This looks nothing like that. He was treated with CP for a month and the tank was fallow for 70 days.

Read the post please, that is what he looked like 2 years ago. He doesn't look like that now.

LAReefer4Life · Nov 14, 2019

jasonrusso said:
Read the post please, that is what he looked like 2 years ago. He doesn't look like that now.

I could not see anything on his dorsal fins in the video. How are your water parameters? Have you noticed any aggression towards him with other tank mates? Do you have stinging corals, nems, etc?

jasonrusso · Nov 14, 2019

pathot984 said:
I could not see anything on his dorsal fins in the video. How are your water parameters? Have you noticed any aggression towards him with other tank mates? Do you have stinging corals, nems, etc?

Right at 0:40 there is a shot of them. Make sure the video is at least 480p. Like I said, I'm not thinking parasite because they aren't changing or getting worse. In fact, Andy isn't getting worse, it may be wishful thinking, but I think he is getting better.

No corals. He doesn't allow them. No aggression towards him, he's the boss. No nipped fins.

Parameters are good. Ph 8.0, NH4 is 0, Nitrates are under 20 (were sky high over 100 for years, but brought them down this summer), PO4 is about 0.5.

I did start running GFO recently because I had a cyano outbreak after dropping the NO3 and leaving the PO4.

LAReefer4Life · Nov 14, 2019

Hmmmm.... Keep an eye on it is all you can do at this point and good-luck... he is adorable BTW.

jasonrusso · Nov 14, 2019

pathot984 said:
Hmmmm.... Keep an eye on it is all you can do at this point and good-luck... he is adorable BTW.

He's more of a pet than a fish.

AlexG · Nov 14, 2019

I have had my porcupine puffer act up before where he will stop eating for a few days and sometimes up to a week. The first instance I know the puffer swallowed part of a shell which triggered the puffer to not eat for a week. Other times he has stopped eating for a day or two after some really large meals. The heavy breathing is something to watch but if it does not get worse then observation might be the best thing to do for the time being. Stressing the fish out more that it needs to be never helps.

jasonrusso · Nov 14, 2019

AlexG said:
I have had my porcupine puffer act up before where he will stop eating for a few days and sometimes up to a week. The first instance I know the puffer swallowed part of a shell which triggered the puffer to not eat for a week. Other times he has stopped eating for a day or two after some really large meals. The heavy breathing is something to watch but if it does not get worse then observation might be the best thing to do for the time being. Stressing the fish out more that it needs to be never helps.

That's what I'm hoping for. I'm not going to medicate for something I don't know when it may be an injured stomach from a shell. It may also have been a bad clam I have him.

I am still debating whether to not feed for a day to maybe allow his stomach to heal, but I don't want him to stop eating all together.

jasonrusso · Nov 14, 2019

I'm also debating on whether to build him a cave to hang out in. He was always in the top corner during the day, out of the light. Now he is hanging out lower by the rocks since I dimmed the lights. At some point I want to turn the lights back up. I think he would appreciate the shelter.

AlexG · Nov 14, 2019

jasonrusso said:
I'm also debating on whether to build him a cave to hang out in. He was always in the top corner during the day, out of the light. Now he is hanging out lower by the rocks since I dimmed the lights. At some point I want to turn the lights back up. I think he would appreciate the shelter.

My porcupine puffer hangs out in the top corner of my tank for most of the day and becomes more active at night. Even with some shady caves available he still likes hanging out in the corner by the return. Night time is when mine is most active.

jasonrusso · Nov 14, 2019

Mine "wakes up" around 5 and waits for food, lol. I got a shipment of snails on Friday from Reef Cleaners. Even in this state, he ate 85% of them the first night!! He's a night stalker, lol.

Any pictures of your puffer?

jasonrusso · Nov 14, 2019

AlexG said:
My porcupine puffer hangs out in the top corner of my tank for most of the day and becomes more active at night. Even with some shady caves available he still likes hanging out in the corner by the return. Night time is when mine is most active.

Sorry, I didn't quote your post. Any pictures of your porcupine?

AlexG · Nov 14, 2019

jasonrusso said:
Sorry, I didn't quote your post. Any pictures of your porcupine?

jasonrusso · Nov 16, 2019

AlexG said:
My porcupine puffer hangs out in the top corner of my tank for most of the day and becomes more active at night. Even with some shady caves available he still likes hanging out in the corner by the return. Night time is when mine is most active.

He's doing the top corner thing again, lol

LAReefer4Life · Nov 16, 2019

He is a big boy!

jasonrusso · Nov 26, 2019

Here is an update :

Andy is still hanging in there. I do believe he is still improving. I was messaging back and forth with @Paul B and he felt that there was too much light. I dimmed the lights for a while, but I saw different behavior from the other fish. I ended up making Andy a dark area where he can get shelter from the light. He seems to love it as he spends most of his time in there.

Paul also suggested live fiddler crabs. Andy goes nuts over them! Almost to much, as that's all he wants to eat now. He begrudgingly ate an Oyster the other night and a mussel last night.

He still isn't "right" but I like seeing him excited about eating again. He hadn't moved on food like that in weeks

AlexG · Nov 27, 2019

jasonrusso said:
Here is an update :

Andy is still hanging in there. I do believe he is still improving. I was messaging back and forth with @Paul B and he felt that there was too much light. I dimmed the lights for a while, but I saw different behavior from the other fish. I ended up making Andy a dark area where he can get shelter from the light. He seems to love it as he spends most of his time in there.

Paul also suggested live fiddler crabs. Andy goes nuts over them! Almost to much, as that's all he wants to eat now. He begrudgingly ate an Oyster the other night and a mussel last night.

He still isn't "right" but I like seeing him excited about eating again. He hadn't moved on food like that in weeks

Happy to hear you are seeing improvements. I am glad the shade has also been a help.

jasonrusso · Mar 24, 2020

I have an update to this thread. Unfortunately Andy died today. He was a good fighter, but whatever was wrong with him was too much. He had been living on 2 or 3 live crabs a day, but had become very thin.

He stopped eating his crabs this weekend and his breathing had become really labored. I quickly filled my 55G (don't judge, that's all I have) as a HT. I put him in there last night and I dosed some CP (in case he had a parasite I couldn't see). He seemed settled last night and this morning, but passed during the day.

I still have no idea what was wrong with him. Whatever it was, he was the only one affected. I think it was a physical problem. He almost seemed like he couldn't swallow.

I was lacing his food with GC for a while in case he had an internal parasite, but that had no effect.

I will get another one, because I simply love them. I just don't want to repeat the same mistakes, if I indeed made a mistake. I even did an ICP test. I had low iodine, but I don't think that would cause this. It causes lockjaw in puffers, but he could chew fine.

Any other ideas??