The Puffer Forum

If you have a nearby university, you could see if they have an ichthyology dept.

How big is the tank? It will eventually need at least a 40g, if not a 55g. Read the GSP article in The Library. Identical care & feeding (just a bigger tank).

Do not drop the salt down his throat! This is Pufferpunk here--please trust me. The amount you are putting in the tank is nominal.

Try upping to 1tbsp/5g (or 2 tbsp/10g). Seems like it helped a little. Do a 50% water change 1st & don't forget to subtract for the Epsom salt you already have in there. I wish we had a nice sectional of pufferorgans!

Mine won't touch snails. She has had a ramshorn & giant apple snail for tankmates. Kills all fish.

Is that 1 1/2 tbsp Epsom salt/5g?

That's what I thought. If this stuff is all junk, how come folks have some sucess w/them?

Doesn't sound like IPs to me. Try getting the nitrates lower. What is your water change schedule?

I had sucess keeping mine with a giant apple snail. Killed the pleco I had w/it.

My 6" GSP would have loved a 55g by himself. If yours is mild-mannered (not a total killer), you may be able to add a few damselfish, when it turns SW in a few years. I'd watch the goby for fin bites.

Shrimp shells should be fairly "soft" & easily digestable for a puffer that size. Nothing else in your tank, he might have eaten? Plastic plants?

Think he'll be able to see that far into the fish? I'd try a long pair of hemostats. The gravel is too small to be what's in there, so maybe it's something else, like Jager said.

Sorry, don't know a whole lot about constipation, except that Epsom salt helps. I'm just guesing that's what it might be. I'd double the Epsom salt now, if you want. That would be another tbsp/10g.

If fed & housed properly, most fish will get larger in an aquarium than in the wild.

LOL, mine said the same thing. There are probably more FW puffers than SW ones.