TLDR; Baby Fahaka sucked in air. After trial and error and a few days in critical condition I popped him. Now he's a perfectly healthy little terror.
Alright, so before I begin to tell the story of how I ended up with a baby Fahaka I do want to say that some of you may not agree with the steps I took in order to save him. I'm sure many of you have much more experience with puffers than I do. I honestly want to hear what many of you would have done had you been in the same situation. I'm here to learn.
Anyway.... to start here is the newest addition to my fish fam (I attached two photos and his quarantine setup, still not positive how to actually have them appear in the thread)
I went to one of my local fish stores the other day in Madison, WI to pick up some feeder shrimp and a few other necessities. As I was perusing their tanks I noticed an itty bittle little baby Fahaka pacing the glass back and forth. I have always wanted a Fahaka and I knew at that moment I needed him. So I took him home.
His first day in his 5 gallon quarantine went well. He ate like a little pig. The next morning however I woke up and he was belly up at the top of the tank; however, he was still breathing and attempting to swim. The only thing I could think was that somehow while eating his mysis shrimp some had not completely thawed and he had managed to get an air bubble trapped inside him. Being so small the tiniest bit of air would throw off his buoyancy. I did notice that he had also puffed. I'm sure the air bubble from feeding had stressed him and somehow me managed to suck in air as he puffed.
The first thing I thought was that if this is the case I need to give him a few hours to work it out himself before I even thought of trying to "burp" him. So I took a silver wire ball (like from a shaker bottle), slipped him inside of it and placed him in the tank hoping it would help him feel a tad bit safer being covered, and being kept down in the tank instead of floating around at the surface. About 14 hours passed with little or no improvement so I decided I would do my best to burp him.
I started by putting on a pair of rubber gloves and then gently grabbing him by the tail. After I had a hold of him I used the tiniest movements with the lightest amounts of pressure I could muster to attempt to coax the air bubble out of him.
Nothing on the first attempt.
I let him rest for a few hours and tried again.
nothing.
In the meantime I kept him in the dark and let him try to work it out. About 24 hours later he was swimming fairly actively however he appeared more like an out of control blimp that a pufferfish still rising back to the surface every moment he stopped swimming. I gave him another night to hopefully work it out.
The next morning I woke up and realized he was not doing too hot. Labored breathing, dark colors, lethargic, obviously very stressed. So I made an absolute last ditch method. I popped him.
In order to do this I took a miniscule needle, sterilized it with alcohol and took him in my gloved hand (underwater of course). I took a fold of his skin on his stomach so I would not puncture any organs or cause any damage beyond superficial damage. I knew that if this ended up working he would (hopefully) be able to survive the small puncture wounds. After I performed my mini fish surgery he immediately expelled all of the air from himself and sank to the bottom of the tank. He was obviously stressed but he was no longer a balloon. I left him for the day while I was at work in the dark with a bit of stress coat in the water to hopefully help him heal a bit.
By the time I came back home he was back to his old self, exploring the tank and curiously following me around. I was still worried though as he wouldn't eat any of the COMPLETELY thawed mysis or smaller ghost shrimp.
By the next day his colors had completely returned and he came up to eat mysis from my tweezers. Since then he's been happily chasing ghost shrimp his size around his quarantine tank and buzzing about like a miniature war zeppelin.
I'm not entirely sure if I had saved this fish or if he would have recovered on his own. I do like to think I saved this little guy though. If I wasn't attached to him before I sure as hell am now!
Alright, so before I begin to tell the story of how I ended up with a baby Fahaka I do want to say that some of you may not agree with the steps I took in order to save him. I'm sure many of you have much more experience with puffers than I do. I honestly want to hear what many of you would have done had you been in the same situation. I'm here to learn.
Anyway.... to start here is the newest addition to my fish fam (I attached two photos and his quarantine setup, still not positive how to actually have them appear in the thread)
I went to one of my local fish stores the other day in Madison, WI to pick up some feeder shrimp and a few other necessities. As I was perusing their tanks I noticed an itty bittle little baby Fahaka pacing the glass back and forth. I have always wanted a Fahaka and I knew at that moment I needed him. So I took him home.
His first day in his 5 gallon quarantine went well. He ate like a little pig. The next morning however I woke up and he was belly up at the top of the tank; however, he was still breathing and attempting to swim. The only thing I could think was that somehow while eating his mysis shrimp some had not completely thawed and he had managed to get an air bubble trapped inside him. Being so small the tiniest bit of air would throw off his buoyancy. I did notice that he had also puffed. I'm sure the air bubble from feeding had stressed him and somehow me managed to suck in air as he puffed.
The first thing I thought was that if this is the case I need to give him a few hours to work it out himself before I even thought of trying to "burp" him. So I took a silver wire ball (like from a shaker bottle), slipped him inside of it and placed him in the tank hoping it would help him feel a tad bit safer being covered, and being kept down in the tank instead of floating around at the surface. About 14 hours passed with little or no improvement so I decided I would do my best to burp him.
I started by putting on a pair of rubber gloves and then gently grabbing him by the tail. After I had a hold of him I used the tiniest movements with the lightest amounts of pressure I could muster to attempt to coax the air bubble out of him.
Nothing on the first attempt.
I let him rest for a few hours and tried again.
nothing.
In the meantime I kept him in the dark and let him try to work it out. About 24 hours later he was swimming fairly actively however he appeared more like an out of control blimp that a pufferfish still rising back to the surface every moment he stopped swimming. I gave him another night to hopefully work it out.
The next morning I woke up and realized he was not doing too hot. Labored breathing, dark colors, lethargic, obviously very stressed. So I made an absolute last ditch method. I popped him.
In order to do this I took a miniscule needle, sterilized it with alcohol and took him in my gloved hand (underwater of course). I took a fold of his skin on his stomach so I would not puncture any organs or cause any damage beyond superficial damage. I knew that if this ended up working he would (hopefully) be able to survive the small puncture wounds. After I performed my mini fish surgery he immediately expelled all of the air from himself and sank to the bottom of the tank. He was obviously stressed but he was no longer a balloon. I left him for the day while I was at work in the dark with a bit of stress coat in the water to hopefully help him heal a bit.
By the time I came back home he was back to his old self, exploring the tank and curiously following me around. I was still worried though as he wouldn't eat any of the COMPLETELY thawed mysis or smaller ghost shrimp.
By the next day his colors had completely returned and he came up to eat mysis from my tweezers. Since then he's been happily chasing ghost shrimp his size around his quarantine tank and buzzing about like a miniature war zeppelin.
I'm not entirely sure if I had saved this fish or if he would have recovered on his own. I do like to think I saved this little guy though. If I wasn't attached to him before I sure as hell am now!
