help me save red-eye puffer!

[AquaMike]

Long story short, I rescued what the previous owner swore was a Borneo puffer (I am aware of the rarity). He also claims to have owned a Salivator previously. So at least he is aware of other dwarf puffers and red-eyes. I will post a pic at the bottom after I write my novel. I'm torn on whether it is a borneo or lorteti though. The tail is not blue in person, but in a picture it stands out. There are no distinguishable lines either. I know a lot of this can be from stress so we'll see. This fish is no "dwarf" either. He is at the top of the size range, at least 2.5+". He had him for the previous 2 years, and even with smaller and larger fish with no problem. Which makes things more confusing, cause I've never heard of a friendly lorteti.

Anyways, the owner downsized his tanks awhile ago and the tank that the puffer was in was not good for him. I remember the pH and temps were really high. He was also having issues getting the right food for him as well. This guy did care about his fish, but needed help with this guy. I figured I always wanted a red-eye and he was only accepting any offers for people that would pick him up. So I made the hour trip, brought some Prime and Kordon Fish Protector for the trip back. Then acclimated for 2.5 hours. This was all by midday so I decided to try and feed him something that night to see what he would take. I went with some live blackworms, a medium sized ramshorn, and a dead adult cherry shrimp. He devoured EVERYTHING! I didn't want to give him more and blow up his belly right away though. His stomach is one of my concerns. He has his bright red spot on it, but it's more thin than sunken in. My initial thought was to feed him a couple smaller meals throughout the day until his stomach looked normal again. However, this morning, and the rest of the day he didn't seem interested. I tried to add frozen bloodworms soaked in vita-chem and garlic guard to the mix. Hopefully he will learn that tongs=food soon.

My main concerns are:
1) his stomach - for the reasons mentioned above. I also bought a small bag of mixed frozen seafood tonight that I was planning on trying tomorrow. Yay or nay?
2) his eyes - if you looked at the picture already you know what I mean. They are not red. They look more blue and albino-esque, with a lack of pigmentation. Actually quite scary looking. My initial thought is from stress or being malnourished. The aren't cloudy which is good.
3) what kind of puffer is this?! Hopefully with your help we can nurse this thing back and its true coloring will emerge!
*also, do you have to worry about red-eyes' teeth?

My tank parameters are as follows:
*temp - 77, pH - 7.3, NH3 - 0, NO2 - 0, NO3 - <5.
*10G - heavily planted tank.
*also inhabits a fully grown female carinotetraodon travancoricus, a Schismatogobius ampluvinculus (goby - may need to move), and some red cherry shrimp which I hope become food.
*I usually feed once a day, mainly with the food I offered the new puffer. 1/3WCs every week religiously. This tank has had no changes in awhile and has been established for about 2.5 years now.

He is an active fish, a little nervous, but it's only been 2 days. I will keep everyone posted and thank you ahead of time for any help.

[AquaMike]

He doesn't like to stay still for photos so it's a little blurry, sorry

[DMD123]

Hope he gets better. Regarding the frozen seafood mix, be careful with these because much of it is cooked. This loses some nutritional value and can be hard for the fish to digest. Have you tried good old earthworms? Fish find it hard to resist a wriggling little worm.

[Pufferpunk]

He is extremely thin. Could be why the eyes look so weird. I agree with the earthworms, it's like feeding them steak! Looks like a lorteti to me but I'm PMing Corvus on this one to be sure.

[AquaMike]

I'm looking for a bait&tackle shop near me online. I would assume this would be the best place to get them? Then just rinse them thoroughly?

Would it be bad to fill him up so soon? Should I let his stomach grow back slowly?

[scpion]

Looks like a borneo I had some time ago. Eyes looked the same as mine so I think that's normal. They are very aggressive though.

[Pufferpunk]

I get them at Walmart.

[Corvus]

1. Took me more than 3 years (!!!) to get my latest C. irrubesco to eat frozen seafood such as clam and mussel parts. Until then it was live food (different larvae of insects, black and blood worms) from large water canisters outside and frozen blood worms. I've never seen it eat a snail, but there are a lot in his tank, so who knows.

2. The eyes look perfect. The strange opalescent color you observe is a kind of sunglasses to filter UV-light and get a better contrast in low light conditions. Many fishes and puffers have them. They are more obvious on species with big eyes such as puffers. The red is underneath, but I agree and find the common name "red eye puffer" for Carinotetraodon in English not completely matching. It hasn't got this common name in other languages.

3. I think C. borneensis, but the picture is too bad to be completely sure. You'd need a picture, where you can clearly see the coloration of the back. C. lorteti generally has two completely separated patches within a lighter margin, C. borneensis just one. Overally coloration of the picture shown says C. borneensis to me, though.

[hadla]

Yep, walmart... I always check the container to make sure they're not dead. One Walmart near me doesn't seem to take care of their worms.

[AquaMike]

the damn bait & tackle place was closed when I went so I'll try early morning before work. I don't have much of a yard to dig up either.

But some good news! What he didn't eat yesterday he more than made up for it today. I gave him the mix I tried the first night, just with more blackworms and he went nuts. The other puffer and him are fine, but she learned quickly not to get in the way of his food. His stomach bulged a little, so hopefully he will start to fill out. Can't wait to see him in all his glorious pudginess. Also, the yellowing markings on top of his head are getting slightly brighter! The only thing that drives me nuts is I think he likes my wife more than me. When she goes in front of the tank he comes out. When I go, he seems timid...until the food comes out.

[AquaMike]

How about a few mealworms to fatten him up a bit? I have to go to Petsmart later anyways.

*and just found some worms! What can I gutload these guys with? Veggies, algae, fish food, meaty foods???

[Pufferpunk]

Mealworms are good & fatty but very difficult to digest their chiton (skin). I don't think earthworms even need to be gut-loaded.

[hadla]

Yeah the worms have enough meat on them unlike ghost and brine shrimp which are basically nothing...

[AquaMike]

I was thinking of just getting a very small order of mealworms and only giving him the smaller younger ones that are supposed to be softer. Plus I plan on cracking/crushing them a little anyways. I do want to try gut loading them with some algae/veggie wafers and color enhancing flakes, along with the typical garlic guard and vita-chem I like to use. I'm just going to go Friday and pick up the last few things I want him to try - earthworms, mealworms, and some live brine shrimp (everything is in opposite directions of each other...). This way he'll have a lot of variety and doesn't just get used to, or want, only one thing. He did devour some frozen bloodworms tonight, and a rcs! His appetite seems ravenous and his belly is slowly getting there. I will do an end of week pic that will hopefully show some improvements. Even his eyes have some slightly, very slightly, more red to them.

I was a little nervous when my pea puffer went for the same bloodworm as Red (guess this name'll work for now). Somehow the little girl won and Red left her alone.

[bertie 83]

Brine shrimp contain no nutrition, allow him to fill up on the earthworms and mix other high protein fish foods in to fatten him up quickly