Pufferfish Swim Bladder Issues??

FishFinatic ;) · Apr 27, 2020

Hello all,

I haven't posted on here in a while, but, as I'm sure some of you know, there's a calm before the storm lol. My puffer who's currently in my 120 gal. was doing great, up until about Friday night, (4/24). He was moved from a QT tank into his DT a couple weeks prior due to an ich issue, but the ich issue has been resolved. Keep in mind he is the only one in the tank along with a few snails. On Friday night, I noticed him swimming on his side, and sometimes, he would even do like little flips in the water. He puffed up four or five times thereafter. I sat with him all night long, thinking the outcome wouldn't be good. He calmed down late at night and just rested on the sand bed. He's been hanging in, but I'm really worried about him. He hasn't puffed up too much, and since Friday, he seemed to have gotten slightly better. I contacted my LFS and they seemed to think it was a swim bladder issue.

I was doing some research and it said to fast the fish for 2-3 days and then feed them a boiled and skinned pea? So that's what I did. I didn't feed him for 2 days (Friday and Saturday), and then on Sunday I mashed up some skinned and boiled peas, added some Selcon, and fed it to him through a syringe. He seemed to eat it.

Today's Monday, and he's still hanging in, but he's definitely in rough shape. Just now, I checked on him, and he was doing small little flips on the bottom of the tank, and he was upside down for quite a bit of time, almost like he isn't able to keep himself upright. It's almost like he's blind; he bumps into things, swims upside down for short periods of time, etc. It's scary to watch, honestly. I'm going to attach a video I took on Friday night of him swimming. Since then, there has been no drastic improvement, in fact, it might even be a little worse. Does anyone have any insight on this or what to do to help him? I would greatly appreciate any help or information that you may have.

Current water parameters:
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrates: 20 ppm
Nitrites: 0 ppm
pH: 8.2
Temp: 80-81 degrees Fahrenheit

Auquanut · Apr 29, 2020

Sorry for the late response. I just saw this. Unfortunately, sometimes important threads get buried. Any chance he's recovering?

FishFinatic ;) · Apr 29, 2020

Auquanut said:
Sorry for the late response. I just saw this. Unfortunately, sometimes important threads get buried. Any chance he's recovering?

Thank you for getting back to me. I do think he is recovering, slightly. He's definitely not out of the woods yet, but he seems to have more strength. Before, he would stay at the bottom of the tank, and when he tried to swim, he'd sink back to the bottom. Now, he is able to swim across the lengths of the tank (with some difficulty), but he has more control. He stays towards the top of the tank (he used to do this when he was healthy, too, though). Also, when he swims, he swims at less of an angle. He seems to be more upright. I still think he's having some problems, but I do notice a positive trend over the past day or so. He seems to be a little stronger, has a little more energy, and despite him still being very disoriented, it looks to be that he can control his swimming more. I'm soooo glad!

I have continued to feed him some skinned peas along with Selcon through a syringe. He does eat some of it, and I think that might be helping him regain strength and control.

I'm thinking that he'll pull through, considering that he seems to be doing better than he was a couple of nights ago... I guess it might just take some time for him to fully recover?

Auquanut · Apr 29, 2020

So glad to hear he's improving! The fact that he's still eating and getting stronger is encouraging.

FishFinatic ;) · Apr 29, 2020

Auquanut said:
So glad to hear he's improving! The fact that he's still eating and getting stronger is encouraging.

I agree. He's still having some problems, but I think the fact that he's getting better, not worse, is a good sign. I will post more later on his status... but, so far, so good. His improvements so far are promising!

Pablo.the.puffer · Jul 29, 2022

FishFinatic ;) said:
I agree. He's still having some problems, but I think the fact that he's getting better, not worse, is a good sign. I will post more later on his status... but, so far, so good. His improvements so far are promising!

Did you fish end up being OK, the same thing is happening to my fahaka puffer and I've feed him a pea tonight he ate it like he was starving.

How long did you feed him peas for? I just poked mine on the end of s stick and poked in in his mouth and he's ate it straight away.

I'm unsure were you from but I'm from nz unsure if we have the other product your talking about.
I'm new to aquariums so I don't know much.

Jay Hemdal · Jul 29, 2022

Pablo.the.puffer said:
Did you fish end up being OK, the same thing is happening to my fahaka puffer and I've feed him a pea tonight he ate it like he was starving.

How long did you feed him peas for? I just poked mine on the end of s stick and poked in in his mouth and he's ate it straight away.

I'm unsure were you from but I'm from nz unsure if we have the other product your talking about.
I'm new to aquariums so I don't know much.

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

If you post a short video of your puffer we may be able to better assess what is going on with it.

Feeding peas to fish is an odd thing. I know the person who originally came up with the idea in the 1960's. It was to treat a specific problem with oranda goldfish. It worked well for that, so everyone started telling people to feed peas to their fish for all sorts of reasons. In reality, it just acts like a laxative, and there are other materials that do the same thing.

Jay