Stressed Dogface Puffer

[Heather00996]

Hi, I just received a yellowbelly dogface puffer in the mail yesterday. He was very stressed and I could tell that he had partially puffed up and did once more when I added him to the tank. I drip acclimated him for 3 hours and then I placed him in the tank. Because he partially puffed up after adding him to the tank, I made sure to cover the tank with a black blanket to try to reduce stress with lights off. He was a little bit better by the end of the day and started swimming around but was showing his teeth frequently and still seemed stressed. First thing this morning I rearranged a little live rock to supply a cave for him to hang out in. This seemed to help but he still seems stressed and completely uninterested in food. He is about 5 inches. The only other fish in the tank is a humu humu trigger that is only about 2.5 inches and a tomatoe and cinnamon clownfish that are about 2.5 inches as well. The dogface is considerably larger than his tankmates and they are not bothering him at all. Any suggestions to help with my dogface puffer's stress? How long does this behavior go on typically?

 

[jay0705]

Just time to adjust

 

[beth]

Just to note, when doing transfers of pufferfish NEVER remove the fish from water during the process. Doing so will very likely cause them to puff and a pufferfish who puffs while out of water is likely will die from doing so, and, obviously you want to avoid them puffing up at all.

I wouldn't cover up the tank with blankets. You can just leave the tank light out but allow room lights to filter into the tank. Make no quick movements around the tank, and avoid fiddling around in the tank, as you did with the rockwork, as this too will cause stress.

If he's coming out to swim, you can try to offer a piece of shrimp (with shell). Make sure to offer puffers some options for eating with seafood food that has shells. This keeps the puffer's teeth filed down. If not, the teeth will grow too large and they will be unable to eat at all as a result. They require shelled fish, clams with shells, fresh shrimp with shells, etc.