puffer stuck in powerhead

[stealthbimmer]

so i finnaly picked up my puffer for my 75g....i got him last night an acclimated him. He was doing great all last night and this morning. When i got home today has back have was stuck in the intake of my powerhead. I quickly unplugged it and he was freed. Now the back half of his body is deflated and doesnt look to good. He is still active, he just has to stop to rest every now and then. Anything i can do for him?

[Nanemene]

Only give him time and make sure no one else is picking on him. In my experience, animals that go through a powerhead will sometimes recover, but there's nothing that really helps except time and low stress levels.

[stealthbimmer]

he is the only fish currently in the tank...so stress is low. then only other things in there are snails and crabs. Hes not even interested in them either, hes actually resting ontop of one right now. He seems to like the pvc tubing in my tank for the future eel. So hopefully he will recover, i just hope he will eat i dont want him to starve

[WaterKeeper]

The danger would be internal injuries. It is beyond the scope of the hobbyist and I would think beyond the scope of a vet to do much about it. Just keep your fingers crossed.

[Percula9]

This once happened to me. Unfortunately I lost the puffer.

[reefergeorge]

what type of puffer? How big is he?
I have a six inch porky that is the laziest fish. They are nocturnal so during the day he lays around on the sand or on top my koralia kind of getting a puffer massage. If he is decent size and the power head isn't huge I would be worried why he got stuck at all.

[seakwon]

Okay this is the weirdest thing ever, i added some rock to my tank the other day before i left on a trip. 1 hour before i actually left on the trip i found my dogfaced puffer (puffed up) stuck in the power head that i had added for the rock being in there. So i freaked out, turned the power off to the tank he got off but the whole side of his body that had been in the power head was wrinkly like and old man and his gill was messed up and red. his body was the shape of the intake on the power head, although it was really funny, i was freaked out that he was going to die while i was on the trip. So two days later i got home and he was totaly normal, i swear, not a single thing was wrong with him. The reason is that they dont have scales, in order to acount for their ability to puff up. I swear if any other fish had bean sucked up into the ph they would have died but the puffer used his ability to save his life. although i have never had a fish that has bean sucked up into a ph before. the puffer are just to slow when they need to be fast.

i cant belive i found this post thats the weirdest thing. my lfs told me to flush him also seing how his eye looked messed up but that cleared up also. so my advice let him stay in the tank especially if he is the only fish in there.

imo he will be fine just give him some time.

crazy though, seing your fish look like that, i felt really bad for him.

[bk_market]

he should recover in couple day. I got a clownfish and a small hippo suck into the powerhead but i got home in time to save the hippo but not the clownfish

[mgtesting]

I would recomend putting some sort of cover on the powerhead.

[WaterKeeper]

I would say that is a good idea Mg for any tank with powerheads. They have an annoying ability to suck in critters, especially for poor swimmers like a puffer. Just a piece of pantyhose covering the intake will do.

[johng723]

Do koralia's have that same problem, or is it just normal powerheads that have a tendency to suck up fish?

[ledford1]

Originally posted by reefergeorge
what type of puffer? How big is he?

Good questions. I'd also add: What kind of powerhead is this?

My wife woke me up one morning with a sad look on her face, and she just motioned me to the aquarium.

My Dogface had jumped out of the tank. We didn't know how long he'd been there, but he just lied there motionless. To see if there was any chance of survival, I picked him up and placed him back in the tank. As soon as he hit the water, he began to puff up - he was alive.

He survived a 5-foot drop onto the hard tile floor. He was bruised for about 2 weeks, and had evidently sucked in some air which also took some time to expel, but he recovered fully.

IME, puffers are a tough sort.

If you have vitamins that you could add to the food, that may help. Otherwise, just give him some time.

[stealthbimmer]

lost him last night ....i walked in to see my cuc having a feast. Ik the ph needed to be covered, and i had a sponge to put on there with me when i got home...but to late. He looked just like sekwon described him....but i have no clue how long he was in there,obviously long enough to stress him out. I seriously thought he was going to be fine, he was still active and everything. It sucks because i got him only the day before. RIP

[steri]

Originally posted by stealthbimmer
he is the only fish currently in the tank...so stress is low. then only other things in there are snails and crabs. Hes not even interested in them either, hes actually resting ontop of one right now. He seems to like the pvc tubing in my tank for the future eel. So hopefully he will recover, i just hope he will eat i dont want him to starve

I also agree with time he should be fine. One thing though for you to watch out for. Puffers are known to eat snails and crabs....well at least crabs that I personally can say for certain. You just may want to keep an eye on them. If your clean up crew starts to shrink, and your puffer looks happier and happier each day, I think you will find your culprut

[steri]

Originally posted by stealthbimmer
lost him last night ....i walked in to see my cuc having a feast. Ik the ph needed to be covered, and i had a sponge to put on there with me when i got home...but to late. He looked just like sekwon described him....but i have no clue how long he was in there,obviously long enough to stress him out. I seriously thought he was going to be fine, he was still active and everything. It sucks because i got him only the day before. RIP

Ow that stinks Forget my last post then.

[seakwon]

i am sorry to hear that you lost him. i hope that doesnt hapen to me. i am worried though about the maxi jets sucking him up again. he was in there with my koralia ever since i got him and he was fine but when i added the maxi-jet thats when he got sucked up in it. he was very unhappy when it happend.

when i look really close at him he has little white spots in him, it looks like air bubbles from skimmer, is it ich? i have never had ich so i dont really know, it doesnt really look like the pictures i found online about ich so i hope not. if so do i need to quarintine him?

[ChadOwens]

Mine also got stuck in a power head once... he didn't look so good.... his eye was almost gone and his spike were permanently stuck up on his head for a few weeks. Since then he has regrown an eye and his spines are all better.

[seakwon]

now that we are on the puffer thing, what does everyone feed theirs? i use silversides but it is bad for the quality of the water i think. any other ideas?

i have also heard they can scratch the glass with their teeth is that true?

[steri]

frozen krill is a good option

[seakwon]

thanks steri. is there a specific reason you chose krill?

[reefergeorge]

I feed krill, crab legs, scallops, silversids, mussels, clams, and he now started eating the formula two cubes I put in for the other fish.

[reefergeorge]

Originally posted by johng723
Do koralia's have that same problem, or is it just normal powerheads that have a tendency to suck up fish?

I have a koralia three, and my six inch puffer sits on top of it and swims off as he likes. As for other fish my tang and coral beauty eat algae right off of it with no problem.

[RobNJ]

i was cleaning my tank with a vortex diatom filter, its super strong, sucked up a chromis, watched him go down the tube into the filter, spin around like crazy ... turn it off, put him back in the tank. he is still kicking.

i now use a screen on the hose.. lol