Valentini Puffer won't eat and is very round

Starfishwoman

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Hi,
I purchased a valentini puffer about 2 months ago. He's only about 2.5". He was eating really well. He was actually trying to steal shrimp out of my baby dwarf fuzzy lion fish's mouth. There's also a bunch of hermits, 2 star fish and a huge arrow crab. He's in a 45 gallon with 3 XL blue green chromes as well. I noticed that he would get a bit rounder on and off. I was thinking he just ate a lot and filled up. He was crazy for food. However, he started eating the flake food that I was feeding the chromes. I also feed frozen cubes of krill, miss shrimp and brine, frozen whole krill, pieces of raw shrimp and clams on a half shell ( not too interested in. I fed this twice). Last Saturday, he got very round. He's been active. So I added some epsom salt to the tank. My PH dropped and I added a buffer to bring it up. It is at 8.71. I put him in a critter carrier inside my tank and tried feeding him peas. He did not touch them. I also tried soaked nori pellets and strips. He didn't eat it. I purchased Easy Mastick 40 . It was suggested by my LFS. It is plankton. He won't touch anything. Then I noticed a couple of little white poops. I took him out of the carrier and dosed the tank with Prazi. It has been 5 days. My PH, is having a hard time staying up. It wants to dip a little. So I added more buffer. I'm going to add an airline. Nitrates have creeped up today between 50-100. My ammonia and nitrites are 0. Yesterday I fed once and today as well. I am cutting back on the feeding. The puffer won't eat anything. I even tried scallops. Do I do a water change ; I am only on day 5 of the Prazi or hold out a little longer? I noticed on his right side, there is a shimmery copper/red color and green on the black. I don't know if it is because he is so puffed out. He is lopsided too. He's larger on one side than the other. I can see something round and dark in the lower part of this chest. I don't know if it is just his organs. I did see him rub up against the lionfish when he was playing tug a war. I had to separate them by pushing a tong up against the puffer. That is when things started to go downhill. Maybe I stressed him? Could he have gotten stung? Does he need to poop? I have only see a tiny brown poop and the 2 white poops in the carrier. He is swimming. What should I do for this little guy? All the other critters are good in the tank.
 
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Starfishwoman

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Hi,
I purchased a valentini puffer about 2 months ago. He's only about 2.5". He was eating really well. He was actually trying to steal shrimp out of my baby dwarf fuzzy lion fish's mouth. There's also a bunch of hermits, 2 star fish and a huge arrow crab. He's in a 45 gallon with 3 XL blue green chromes as well. I noticed that he would get a bit rounder on and off. I was thinking he just ate a lot and filled up. He was crazy for food. However, he started eating the flake food that I was feeding the chromes. I also feed frozen cubes of krill, miss shrimp and brine, frozen whole krill, pieces of raw shrimp and clams on a half shell ( not too interested in. I fed this twice). Last Saturday, he got very round. He's been active. So I added some epsom salt to the tank. My PH dropped and I added a buffer to bring it up. It is at 8.71. I put him in a critter carrier inside my tank and tried feeding him peas. He did not touch them. I also tried soaked nori pellets and strips. He didn't eat it. I purchased Easy Mastick 40 . It was suggested by my LFS. It is plankton. He won't touch anything. Then I noticed a couple of little white poops. I took him out of the carrier and dosed the tank with Prazi. It has been 5 days. My PH, is having a hard time staying up. It wants to dip a little. So I added more buffer. I'm going to add an airline. Nitrates have creeped up today between 50-100. My ammonia and nitrites are 0. Yesterday I fed once and today as well. I am cutting back on the feeding. The puffer won't eat anything. I even tried scallops. Do I do a water change ; I am only on day 5 of the Prazi or hold out a little longer? I noticed on his right side, there is a shimmery copper/red color and green on the black. I don't know if it is because he is so puffed out. He is lopsided too. He's larger on one side than the other. I can see something round and dark in the lower part of this chest. I don't know if it is just his organs. I did see him rub up against the lionfish when he was playing tug a war. I had to separate them by pushing a tong up against the puffer. That is when things started to go downhill. Maybe I stressed him? Could he have gotten stung? Does he need to poop? I have only see a tiny brown poop and the 2 white poops in the carrier. He is swimming. What should I do for this little guy? All the other critters are good in the tank.
Puffy.jpg

Here is a photo of him.
Puffy.jpg
tempImagesYtT4M.png
 
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Jay Hemdal

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Epsom salts will not help marine fish, it is a freshwater tonic only. Feeding peas is an old remedy for a specific issue with fancy goldfish, again, not for marine fish. It is just a laxative anyway.

Do you think the puffer may have inflated and just can’t release the water, that happens sometimes. Another issue can be fluid build up due to ascites from liver or kidney failure - neither of those issues can be treated.
Can you post a short video of the puffer?
Jay
 
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Epsom salts will not help marine fish, it is a freshwater tonic only. Feeding peas is an old remedy for a specific issue with fancy goldfish, again, not for marine fish. It is just a laxative anyway.

Do you think the puffer may have inflated and just can’t release the water, that happens sometimes. Another issue can be fluid build up due to ascites from liver or kidney failure - neither of those issues can be treated.
Can you post a short video of the puffer?
Jay
Hi Jay thank you so much for your help. I have been getting advice from professionals who are not puffer experts. They are trying to help. It seems as if he will deflate a little then get larger. Yesterday, his back started to become more full, then the back went down. I read about 2 different ways to try to make your puffer burp, non of them helped. One of the guys at the LFS, suggested for me to look for lopsided puffer info but I couldn't find anything. He is able to cruise, as you will see from the video. He's not as pushy as he used to be this past week. More calm and hangs in the back of the tank more often. I just woke him up. The lights were off.

Do you think it is worms since I saw the 2 tiny white poops in the littler critter carrier he was in? That is why the LFS suggested Prazi. He said to use it for 7 days. I have never had a puffer prior to this.
 

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Jay Hemdal

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Hi Jay thank you so much for your help. I have been getting advice from professionals who are not puffer experts. They are trying to help. It seems as if he will deflate a little then get larger. Yesterday, his back started to become more full, then the back went down. I read about 2 different ways to try to make your puffer burp, non of them helped. One of the guys at the LFS, suggested for me to look for lopsided puffer info but I couldn't find anything. He is able to cruise, as you will see from the video. He's not as pushy as he used to be this past week. More calm and hangs in the back of the tank more often. I just woke him up. The lights were off.

Do you think it is worms since I saw the 2 tiny white poops in the littler critter carrier he was in? That is why the LFS suggested Prazi. He said to use it for 7 days. I have never had a puffer prior to this.

Is the puffer still eating?

I didn't mention last night, but a pH of 8.7 is too high. What test are you using for that? Buffers should not be capable of taking the pH that high.

I don't think that it is tapeworm, and that is the only worm that Prazi will treat (aside from external flukes).

Unfortunately, even with the videos, I can't tell if this is from the fish inflating, or from ascites. However, one clue is that you said it happened suddenly. That would steer me away from ascites, as that develops gradually. I can't explain the lopsidedness.

Jay
 
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