Pregnant pufferfish?

[gregstyne]

My girlfriend I have a figure-8 pufferfish that we have we have recently noticed that its belly had become quite bloated. We are concerned that it may be pregnant, but we are novices, and do not know how to tell. Anyone with any information or experience with these fish would be much appreciated. Thanks all!

[cocoa_pleco]

May be bloat. Does she seem the same and act normal??? how much do you feed him???

[kimmers318]

I don't personally have any experience with figure 8, but can give you a few tips. Most of my research shows they are hard to breed in captivity, and the little info that is out there on breeding leads me to think this is probably NOT the case in your situation. Do you have your puff in a brackish set up? What size tank, how often is your maintenance done, did you cycle the tank before you got the puff, what are you feeding it? All of these items if not done correctly can lead to an ill puffer. I am leaning more towards the possibility of bloat and as I don't have any experience treating that either, sorry can't help you. A suggestion I have would be to post a pic if you can on either thepufferforum.com or pufferresources.net along with the above information and see if they can help you. There are alot of people there with loads of puffer experience and will lead you in the right direction.

[Drumachine09]

It could also have severe constipation. If so, feed boiled peas to clear out the pipes.

[cocoa_pleco]

do the boiled peas as drumachine said, and dont feed anything else for at least a week to clear his system. (fish can go without food for 1 month or more, and its good to clear out their pipes.)