[goldfishees]

How ovften do puffers inflate and how do they deflate????????????????

[Reefland]

If you provide them with a stress free environment, they will never "puff". When they inflate, it is a natural attempt at scaring off whatever the fish feels threatened by.

The deflate the same way they inflate.

[Arctic Fox]

Originally Posted by goldfishees

How ovften do puffers inflate and how do they deflate????????????????

Reefland is right, provided they have a stress free environment they will never actually inflate.

Puffers inflate themselves by swallowing water into a specialized stomach when they feel threatened. It is a defensive mechanism that is bad for them as it stretches and can rupture their stomach. If their stomach stretches it causes them what I can only imagine as a great amount of pain which may make them feel more threatened and they will try to continue inflating until their stomach actually ruptures. When their stomach ruptures it will kill them, most likely not instantly, but if their stomach has actually ruptured, they're screwed, game over. Puffers can also actually hurt the muscles involved in pulling water into the stomach like pulling the muscle.

Puffers deflate by basically barfing the water back out of their stomach. Not much to it really. They will deflate when they no longer feel threatened.

There are several things that can happen to a puffer if it ever feels threatened enough to inflate.
One would be that it freaks out, inflates, and then calms down and lets all the water out and all is good with the world.
Another possibility is if it swallows air for some reason, say it is pulled out of the tank for some reason, then it will not be able to regurgitate that air back out, or will only be able to regurgiate some of the air back out, in this case the puffer will not be able to swim or regulate its bouency. It will be stuck positively bouent and eventually die if left alone. I've heard of people grabbing the puffer by the tail, holding the puffer with it's front end up and back end down in the water and gently shaking or squeezing the puffer to get the air out, I have no experience as to it this really works or not.
Another thing that can happen is the puffer can swallow water, but pull the muscle used to control the stomach and he will not be able to regurgitate the water back out, in this case the puffer will have difficulty swimming and will most likely sink, he may stop eating and is most likely a goner if he stops eating. This happened to a puffer I had when I first bought him, the shock of being in a bag made him puff, and he died within 36 hours. Sometimes I've heard that the puffer can live through this experience.
If he puffs and ruptures or tears his stomach he's screwed. There's nothing you can do for him except to euthenize him.



You may think that your puffer has inflated himself if he has eaten a lot, happens all the time because puffers will literally eat until they cannot swim if you let them. They will look puffed up, but they are just overfull and generally it is nothing to worry about.