Spiny puffer questions

[AndyKatz]

Hello everyone,

I had to show up here and boast about how healthy our tank had been. The gods do listen....

Last week our spiny puffer appeared stressed and died the next day. Water temp had been stable, as had salinity 1.023, nitrates .20 ppm, pH 8.1. Changes and top-offs were done with R/O water, and we installed a U/V filter about three months ago.

So the short of it is I have no idea why the spiny puffer died. The other fish (a dogface, two triggers & three damsels) seem fine. We had purchased a spiny prior to the present one. It died after less than 12 hours in tank. I attributed that to the shock of transfer. The current one had been in the tank about four to five months. Ate well on krill and brine shrimp, until the last day.

Now I'm wondering if spiny puffers are more delicate than others. Did we miss something in its diet? Have others lost spiny puffers in otherwise healthy tanks?

Thanks

Andy

[Catpicklesdog]

By Spiny puffer I take it you mean Diodon holocanthus otherwise known as the Porcupine puffer? If so, my favourite:grinyes:

Whilst I love puffers and have been researching them I do not own one so am not speaking from experience!

Is there any chance your Triggers have had a go? Which ones do you have??

It could be possible that it was already ill when you got it. Was there any sign of worms?

Sometimes we do lose fish for no apparent reason and through no fault of our own:shakehead:

[Pufferpunk]

Or was it a spiny boxfish, which usually have severe issues with internal parasites & may need to be dewormed several times?

[AndyKatz]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the comments. And you're right, it was a *porcupine* puffer. We've had several over the years, but my mind isn't what it used to be.

We've also housed triggers with puffers in the past, and I've never known the former to bother the latter. Although this puffer demonstrated a huge appetite in the time he was with us, he also seemed distinctly unhealthy. In the am when the lights went on, he'd stay wedged in by the powerhead or under a rock. His eyes would seem opaque. Then by feeding time, he'd seem much better.

So maybe he never was 100%.

I just wanted to make sure, because the porcupines are favorites of ours, especially my wife's (she loves how they spit water at her when they come to surface to await feeding), and after losing two, I didn't want to take a needless chance on losing another.

Andy