Porcupine puffer keeps puffing up?

[bkl911]

Not sure if I need to be concerned....but my approx 3 inch long porcupine puffer keeps puffing up. I know when they feel like they are being threatened or attacked they do that...but also know it stresses them out..possibly leading to death. Now the other tank mates are a 18" snowflake eel, 5" Lunare Wrasse, and 3 tiny damsels, all in a 180g tank.

 

It seems like he is doing this pretty consistantly everyday a little while after feeding time. I usually feed him a couple pieces of krill and some silversides until he stops eating. What I am thinking is that he is rearranging the food in his stomach. This morning I went to the basement to check up on him, and he was puffed out to about the size of a baseball and no other fish was even around him. Now when he puffs up, he is only doing it for about 5 seconds, then he looks like he is regurgitating and goes back to normal. Should I be worried.

[extreme_tooth_decay]

That doesn't sound normal.

 

When I had one, he would puff up for no apparent reason, but very rarely (once a month or less that I saw).

 

I'd come downstairs and see him floating around, all puffed up. Then when he saw me, he would un-puff. It was pretty amusing.

[bkl911]

That doesn't sound normal.

 

When I had one, he would puff up for no apparent reason, but very rarely (once a month or less that I saw).

 

I'd come downstairs and see him floating around, all puffed up. Then when he saw me, he would un-puff. It was pretty amusing.

 

Yea, it is pretty amusing actually. I had done tons of research and reading up on the care of a porc puffer, and wanted to make sure I could properly take care of him. Since most of what I read was that it is stressful when they puff, I was concerned since he does it so much. He acts completely normal and eats like a little porker when it is feeding time....then he puffs up a while later and goes into his little spot in the live rock which is like a shelf where he rests. He seems like he needs to rest after puffing and eating. Now one thing is after feeding time, his stomach is always distended to the point that it is bulging his abdomen out and does look very unnatural.

[Brian Ward]

I definitely do not think that's normal. Mine has only puffed once and that was when a (human) guest was behaving oddly near the tank and probably spooked him. I think that sounds like a ton of food for a 3" puffer. Mine is bigger than that and as long as I thaw all the food he doesn't eat anywhere near that much. If I leave the food frozen in cubes, then he'll eat all the cubes whole, stealing them from the other fish that are picking at them. He was probably eating his body weight in cubes, so I always thaw them now. Try to cut back on how much you feed him and see if the puffing stops. If not, then I'm not sure there's anything you can do.

[Terps]

I heard once that these puffers need de-worming, have you done that?

[bkl911]

I heard once that these puffers need de-worming, have you done that?

 

 

Actually I did not go through deworming him. I thought if they were showing erratic eating habits or problems with their feces...you had to deworm them. I will do some more research about this...thanks!