New fish not eating

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Read this before posting!!

Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.

1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.

2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.

3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)

4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.

5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.

We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.

While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.

Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
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Srcra
Puffer Fry
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New fish not eating

Post by Srcra »

Hi,

I realise this question has been asked a lot but I still would be grateful for your advice in my case!

So, I have a 48 litre (about 12 gallon) tank that has been set up and cycled for around 6 months which used to house zebra danios and guppies until I moved them to a larger community tank. I decided to buy 3 DPs for the now empty tank. I also read that otos would be ok with DPs.
A week ago I bought 3 juvenile DPs and 2 otos and added them to tank. Also added 3 adult ramshorn snails.

Testing water with ApI: ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate between 10-20. Use prime when adding new water. Sand substrate, lots of plants and driftwood.

Ever since I added the DPs they have been hiding, only occasionally swimming around, sometimes up and down the glass. I have tried feeding them live and frozen bloodworms, frozen mosquito larvae, garlic soaked food. Not once have I seen any of them feed, and mostly I can't even find them in the tank! I'm worried there's something wrong, but I'm not sure what. I even wiggle food in front of their faces but they don't react. Sometimes they just sit on the bottom looking around not doing anything.

Any ideas what's going on? Thanks in advance!
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bertie 83
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Re: New fish not eating

Post by bertie 83 »

Hi and welcome to the forum. Could be a hunger strike, these have been known to last a couple of weeks. Are your dps large enough to tell what sex they are?
It's amazing how easy maintenance is. If done regularly and thoroughly
Srcra
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Re: New fish not eating

Post by Srcra »

One has died now... When I put the food in it just goes everywhere so I can't pick it back out again or see if it's been eaten as there are so many plants/bits of driftwood etc. I have now seen one eat though, but both are really shy and hide when they see me. Is this normal?

Thanks again.
Last edited by Srcra on Sun Aug 03, 2014 3:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
Srcra
Puffer Fry
Posts: 7
Joined: Fri Jul 25, 2014 3:56 pm
Location (country): Uk

Re: New fish not eating

Post by Srcra »

Thanks for your reply. I think I got 2 females and one male, but it could've 2 males one female as one is hard to tell.

The fish shop said they were eating frozen bloodworms fine. Now one of them seems to be swimming strangely like he can't balance himself, and has a sort of pocket of air under his belly. I'm worried he's going to die. I rechecked the water and it's fine. My water is very soft, could this be why?

I'm going to take them back if this one dies as I don't want them to suffer if they were ok in the shop :(
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Re: New fish not eating

Post by Master of Puffers »

Bonjour et beinvenue.

I'm agreeing with Bertie on a hunger strke. I've had several puffers go for a couple of weks not eating either at all or when I was around. Idrooped food in and left it for around 10 mins before removing . Live food I'd leave for longer.

If it's a heavily decorated tank,they are most likely seting up terratories so feed over the whole water surface to ensure an equal distrubution of food.
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