Giant porcupine puffer with trapped air!

[Jesse Gassaway]

Sorry for your puffer loss
I too know first hand how great these are as water puppies in our homes, so full of personality.
Mine had this happen a few times while he was young mainly from going after small snails or other foods near the surface.
Once or twice my porc was startled by one of my kids or guest viewing the tank and he would gasp at the surface and inflate with air.
This can be deadly for the fish if the air is not released in a reasonable time with minimal stress.

I'm sure that this will work for you as it did benefit me with mine.
First is a critter cage on hand as @Humblefish and a few others have suggested.
Second is for when you get another little porc make sure to shop around for a very small juvenile.
Mine was two eyeballs and a tail tiny. While they can be somewhat difficult to get feeding on prepared foods at smaller sizes there are great benefits to this.

For example
I had to hand feed my porcupine puffer for the first few weeks, basically surrounding him loosely with one hand like a small cage and rubbing the bit of clam , snail or what ever on his snout and mouth to make or provoke a bite.
( no this isn't cruel it's a form of force feeding that works )
My little porcupine got comfortable in my hand and would swim over to me during tank maintenance. Usually would inspect my hands and fingers for signs of food with is fiber optic eyes and if nothing was available he would swim around to my palm hoping I would cradle him and offer food. It was special to me that my porc was comfortable with being handled and helped when things went wrong like being air bound.
Holding or touching this spine ball was normal and comforting to the fish so this helped him relax and release the air much faster.
Less stress equals less time the air stays trapped.
The critter cage will offer some comfort during this process as well.

On another note, the diet of puffers like other predatory fish is super important for their health and the health of their organs.
Keeping multiple sources of nutrition mimicking their natural diet is a must.
Clams, crab, squid, shrimp and some cut marine fish is crucial to their diet.
Small live snails and clam on the half shell are essential foods as well for their health internally as they will consume the shells of these critters to some degree.
Puffers like triggers benefit from crushing and munching on the shells of clams and snails to help keep their beak like teeth / tooth from growing too long and interfering with feeding or causing damage to their own mouth.

Some of this is probably known by you and others already I just wanted to share some information and experience in hopes to help anyone reading

Good luck and happy reefing
BluewaterLa / Mike

Yea we are talking about getting another one and starting very very small! he has some buddies in the tank that he grew up with so we are gonna start them new as well! I was always big on giving him a mixed diet, he was so big that giant clams and mussels were a breeze for him, gonna be strange seeing one have a challenge with food!

Very sorry you lost your puffer... I'm debating getting a porcupine puffer and just curious how you moved him to your tank. did you net him or use a bucket? How did you not pour any store water he was in in your tank?

I actually inherited him about a year ago from somebody that had him for years from the time he was very very small! In my case the guy gave me his tank and all the contents along with the fish so I was able to keep it in the exact same water as its previous home! When we moved him we dipped a large container into the tank and pulled him out and then added him into an even bigger 25 gallon costco container to be moved to my house! he seemed fine and never puffed or anything close! I definitely recommend keeping a container in your car whenever you shop for one, so that your local fish store doesnt attempt to bag it up!