My Mbu is about 5" and seems to be fine but there are a couple things that have been worrying me. First, his habits are rather strange. He stays to one corner of the tank (75g) and will only swim at the front of the tank. He'll go to the halfway mark but then swim back to his corner. He either rests on the bottom near his corner or swims almost frantically at the glass. He also seems to be rubbing his mouth on the glass a little bit which leads me to my real concern. The skin around his mouth seems thinner and a bit whiter than the rest. At the corners of his mouth he has little holes in the skin, one on each side, that seem symmetrical and almost natural. I can't tell if the skin is receding but it definitely looks thinner than I've seen in Mbu pictures. He has a healthy appetite (thawed raw shrimp and earthworms mostly) and shows no other signs of distress. His breathing is heavy, but seems in pace with most puffers I've seen. I've been salting the water a bit as he had a little ich about a month back. Does this all sound normal? maybe I'm just paranoid but any help would be great.
Mbu Worries
- Thread starter Aribenlaw
- Start date
my mbu stays at the bottom on his belly for a good amount of the day, and goes up and down the side of the tank with his lips against it, i think he does that when he hungry, cause a soon as i see him do that i stick a piece of shrimp and ther and u shreds it right away.
my Fahakas lie down regularly..I wouldn't worry. As long as it is eating, it should, and will, be fine.
make sure your water quality is in tip top shape. When puffers such as fahakas and mbus are under 8'' they are very very vulnerable. Due to the fact that they can eat a tramendous amount of food they produce a huge amount of waste which toxifies the water. You should be doing a 40% water change every week to ensure great water quality. Which reminds me i should go do a change on my fahaka tank right now
It's realy the skin at his mouth that was worrying me. I thought it might be linked the rubbing. He's active and been exploring a little bit in the last few days so I'm not as concerned as I was. I'd still like to know what's up with his mouth but as long as he's eating I'll be happy.
Aribenlaw;694263; said:
They do seem to have dimple like markings on either side of their mouths, that seems to be the norm. As for staying at one end of the tank, I find Mbu's do choose one end of the tank as their area. As long as the puffer is feeding and you're doing water changes there shouldn't be a problem
Hard to tell from the angle. When viewed from the side with his mout open there is a gap in the flesh. I just haven't seen any pictures from that angle.