Sadly, two of amazon puffers died due to air getting in their stomachs how can I avoid this?

[professorjimjam]

I had 4 amazon puffers two of them full size adults and two were smaller. the full sized ones were very active, healthy and beautiful. I have been feeding them live worms and frozen blood worms and shrimps.

one day after feeding them, their bellies got big and it never deflated again, they lost appetite and were floating near surface vertically and I tried a lot to burp them but I could not succeed.
I tested water and everything else and everything seems to be perfectly fine. water condition etc. I googled and found so many answers related what could have caused it, I also found in one of the forums that frozen food must be soaked in the water for 10 minutes before pouring it into the tank, because those particles of frozen food has air bubbles and when puffers eat that the air gets into their stomach which then becomes difficult to get out and eventually will kill them.

for two consecutive days, I tried my best to save them but both of them sadly died. the trauma of losing them hit me really hard to my core and I got depression from that. I love them so very much. the other two are left there and are fine. I am going to go to a pet store to buy two new. but I was wondering to know and learn from you whether or not my assumption on their cause of dead was correct, or was I wrong?

How can I avoid such situation? I also have airstone in the tank, could it be that airstone causing the bubbles getting into their belly?

 

[fishguy1978]

When I transfer puffers between tanks or introduce for the first time after purchase I use a cup to scoop them up instead of a net. I have had puffers ingest air before and successfully burped them. Doesn't sound like you have moved them recently.
I had not heard the bit about frozen food being saturated with little air bubbles.
Could you post the water test results for your tap water and your aquarium too?

 

[professorjimjam]

water test tap water after 24 hour, amonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 0 PH 8
water test tank, amonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 3ppm PH 7.5

I have not moved them, only thing I did was that I use direct pipe from the spout of the kitchen to change the water. and that was making a lot of bubbles in the tank. I do not know if that caused it, but I have always done that way, but not sure why this time air got into them.

 

[FahakaPapa]

I have a Fahaka puffer that’s almost 12 years old. I’ve fed him frozen food (shrimp) without a problem so this would be the first I hear of that. I always thaw his food now….. but I’m sure he’d still have no problem with frozen. I think there’s more to this than frozen food.

 

[Deadeye]

Fat Homer kno4te
I feed mine frozen all the time no problems. I put the cube right in, but they wait for it to thaw.

 

[kno4te]

Fat Homer kno4te
I feed mine frozen all the time no problems. I put the cube right in, but they wait for it to thaw.

I’ve heard of this but not seen of it. Were the Amazon puffers quarantined or treated for parasites? They are wild and could have some underlying bug/pathogen do it as well. Something to consider.

 

[xenacanth9]

 

[Fat Homer]

Very unusual indeed… sounds like there is more to it than just air bubbles?

Unless they were grabbing food from the surface then there is a chance they could have accidentally gulped some air but if you attempted to burp them with no success then it sounds like something else?

With that said, how exactly did you try burping them? Did you do it underwater?

As with this bump, can you describe what happened? So you fed them till their belly was round and then stopped? Followed by the next morning them floating vertically near the surface?

Final question would be how long have you owned these puffers? Are they fairly new or you kept them for months / years already?

Just seems very unusual that 2 of the 4 passed away… sounds like potentially something wrong with the larger 2 and not the smaller ones?

 

[professorjimjam]

Thanks Fat Homer

I had these puffers since February 2021, back in March 2021, they got white spots and I treated them with copper sulphate and they got cured.
I tried to burp them cupping my hand and holding them under water. just before shown the sign of coming to surface, they were eating black mosquito larva for two consecutive days and they have been eating a lot. then I stopped mosquito larva and started frozen food and they ate again and their bellies were looking very full. I am thinking maybe they must have eaten a lot, maybe it could not have been the air but too much live food? Also when I changed the water, the new water poured was a bit colder, but if cold water could have been the cause, then why it did not affect the others.

I now see the sign of not eating from the remainign two, I am not sure if they are unhappy becuase of loss of their friends, or it could be some unknown parasite.

 

[kno4te]

Think if u plant to keep the left over puffers. A round of half dose levamisole maybe in order. Don’t think it’ll hurt at this point.