Sick drawf (freshwater) puffers

[eprasinos]

African (Malawi) cichlid tank. 75 gallons, established. PH 7.5-8.0. Chichlid salt used. No plants, only rockscape. Bought 6 puffers ~8 weeks ago. Feed mosquito larvae, brine shrimp, krill. I feed them once a day. Occasionally skip a day. Also pellet, flake, cichlid food. The puffers don't seem to eat these. No signs of illness. No problems with other fish in the tank. Found three of the puffers dead, two days ago. One is now sick. THe other two lay on the bottom but seem to have revived and are swimming around None of them have looked sick- no ich, fungus, etc. Help. I really like these guys and am not sure what to do. Is the Ph too high for them? Not enough or too muh salt? No cover? Wrong food? looked them up on the net but cannot find the answers to these questions. I have a community tank and a guppy tank I could move them to if the ph is an issue (they are 7.0)- but if so, how do you do it without shocking them by the ph change? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Tommy Gun]

Welcome to the forum!

Do you know exactly what type of puffer(s) you may have? Many times, an LFS will label a tank as "freshwater dwarf puffers" when that is not the complete truth.

Check out this website and browse through the various types of dwarf puffers to see if you can find exactly which one, if you dont already know:
http://puffernet.tripod.com/species.html

[Tommy Gun]

What are the other types of fish in your tank?

How much cichlid salts are you using and what is your method of adding them?

How did you acclimate your fish to this tank?

Of all the foods, what did you find the puffers were most apt to eat?

I am not the puffer expert by any means. However, I can see some issues occuring not only between having multiple puffers in the same tank, but between puffers and any other fish, especially cichlids.

In a pinch, I would offer as many hiding places as you can as soon as you can....for all your fish. I think puffers may like caves or similar nooks to hide in, and of course, cichlids do as well.
I think there could be quite a few issues occuring here such as compatability issues, acclimation issues, water chemistry...just to name a few. If you can give us as much information as possible, it may help generate a more accurate educated guess.

[eprasinos]

Tetraodon fluviatilis
I have a variety of Malawi Cichlids, juveniles to 4" adults. Gravel and crushed coral substrate. No one appears to be bothering them and they don't nip anyone else- the cichlids are too fast. Ph 7.5-8.0, temp 78F, salt is cichlid salt at 3/4 tsp/10gallons but the hydrometer reads 1.000 specific gravity so it is just about as close to fresh water as you can get. I mix the salt in water and drip in with water changes. They like krill the best but have no trouble eating the frozen mosquitoe larvae or the brine shrimp. Do not eat any flake, dried, etc food. Added fish to established tank by drip method. They have been in the tank for 5 weeks or so without a problem. The sick one, now is on the bottom of the tank and laying there, color is darker than normal. Fins are not moving a lot. The other two are quieter than usual but are still eating and swim around. I added two long plants and they seem to be gravitating toward that end of the tank, so perhaps the issue was aggression and lack of cover. Any other suggestions appreciated. I am reading up on them, again, as fast as I can. Have been keeping fish for 30 years but never had these before. I am used to accasional fish loss but I was really enjoying the group. Elleni

[Sarah84]

I reseached dwarf puffers for awhile, they do better alone, because of their agression towards eachother and other fish, and they do best in a well-planted tank, with lots of hiding holes. so it's possible the dominate oneis tearing up the others.. etc.. and maybe the cichlids are picking on them when you dont know it! They shouldn't be in the guppy tank either because of their agressive pesonalities. www.dwarfpuffer.com will provide even more information for you.

Sarah