constipated mbu!!

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
Forum rules
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.
Nick
Former Staff Member
Posts: 3231
Joined: Sun Oct 22, 2006 8:47 pm
My Puffers: Mine:
GSPs - Shakespeare and Jillybean
F8 - Velvet
My fiance:
DP - Emma Goldman
Narrow Lined Puffer - Ulrike
Location (country): Northeastern USA
Location: Middletown, CT
Contact:

Re: constipated mbu!!

Post by Nick »

I wish there was something you could feed him to help dissolve/chemically break down the shell, but I've googled the crap out of the idea and can't find anything...
No matter how magnificent your successes or devastating your failures, the worlds' approximately 5 billion impoverished people could not possibly care less.
matt willis
Puffer Fry
Posts: 34
Joined: Sun Nov 29, 2009 12:59 pm
Gender: Male
My Puffers: mbu puffer snr, mbu puffer jnr
giant gourami ,flowerhorn, giraffe catfish
Location (country): england
Location: march cambs

Re: constipated mbu!!

Post by matt willis »

SUCCESS!!!!
he has just passed 3 mussel shells ! what a relief its just like he has given birth lol
i put in one teaspoon for every 10g
i had the proffeser of cambridge veterinary colledge coming over with student to perform an enima as well. thank you everyone for your help
im over the moon we thought he was a gonna
User avatar
Pufferpunk
Queen Admin
Posts: 32764
Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
Gender: Female
My Puffers: Filbert, the 12" T lineatus
Punkster, the 4" red T miurus
Mongo, the 4" A modestus
2 T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
Also kept:
lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles
Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
Location: Chicago
Contact:

Re: constipated mbu!!

Post by Pufferpunk »

Did he do the enema?
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
matt willis
Puffer Fry
Posts: 34
Joined: Sun Nov 29, 2009 12:59 pm
Gender: Male
My Puffers: mbu puffer snr, mbu puffer jnr
giant gourami ,flowerhorn, giraffe catfish
Location (country): england
Location: march cambs

Re: constipated mbu!!

Post by matt willis »

he didnt need to thank god but he very interested in exotic fish and cuttle fish im keeping in regular contact with him, he said that if there is any problems he would be very willing to help so if anyone in england has a problem i will ask him if i can pass on his details.
it was going to involve a 1ml syringe some pipe and 5ml sticky liquid parrafin!!!!
Nick
Former Staff Member
Posts: 3231
Joined: Sun Oct 22, 2006 8:47 pm
My Puffers: Mine:
GSPs - Shakespeare and Jillybean
F8 - Velvet
My fiance:
DP - Emma Goldman
Narrow Lined Puffer - Ulrike
Location (country): Northeastern USA
Location: Middletown, CT
Contact:

Re: constipated mbu!!

Post by Nick »

Did he digest the meat out from inside them and pass empty shells?
No matter how magnificent your successes or devastating your failures, the worlds' approximately 5 billion impoverished people could not possibly care less.
matt willis
Puffer Fry
Posts: 34
Joined: Sun Nov 29, 2009 12:59 pm
Gender: Male
My Puffers: mbu puffer snr, mbu puffer jnr
giant gourami ,flowerhorn, giraffe catfish
Location (country): england
Location: march cambs

Re: constipated mbu!!

Post by matt willis »

they were empty so he had digested the good bits, im just worried because he is a greedy fish and he sometimes swallows things whole and he might not be so lucky next time
Nick
Former Staff Member
Posts: 3231
Joined: Sun Oct 22, 2006 8:47 pm
My Puffers: Mine:
GSPs - Shakespeare and Jillybean
F8 - Velvet
My fiance:
DP - Emma Goldman
Narrow Lined Puffer - Ulrike
Location (country): Northeastern USA
Location: Middletown, CT
Contact:

Re: constipated mbu!!

Post by Nick »

I guess only feed him ones too big to get into his mouth?

In theory, most animals are built so that if it fits in one end, it fits out the other, but you can never be sure something won't get wedged somehow, like happened here.
No matter how magnificent your successes or devastating your failures, the worlds' approximately 5 billion impoverished people could not possibly care less.
matt willis
Puffer Fry
Posts: 34
Joined: Sun Nov 29, 2009 12:59 pm
Gender: Male
My Puffers: mbu puffer snr, mbu puffer jnr
giant gourami ,flowerhorn, giraffe catfish
Location (country): england
Location: march cambs

Re: constipated mbu!!

Post by matt willis »

this guy has one big mouth!!!
any other suggestions on other food that is readily available???
User avatar
Dadof4
Tech Team
Posts: 2862
Joined: Sun Oct 19, 2008 5:50 am
Gender: Male
My Puffers: 1 GSP (Microfiche) RIP, 1 Monotrete Turgidus (Leon) in a 30gal. 1 Monotrete suvattii in a 40 gal FW. 120 gallon BW with 3 juvenile Dragon Gobies (so cool). 55 gal with a 2" GSP named Hank. 180 gallon being set up for a Fahaka in the next few months!
Location (country): United States
Location: North Wisconsin

Re: constipated mbu!!

Post by Dadof4 »

Glad to hear he finally passed it!
"This too shall pass"

Oh, Nick...I don't know about that what goes in fits going out thing, I've seen some humans eat some pretty big things. Does this mean they are huge...nevermind.... :lol:
"Darwin swings...annnnnnd a miss. Boy Jim, Chuck's suffered at the plate tonight. He's 0 for 3 and I'm not sure he's recovered from that shoulder pull a few weeks ago. I'll bet the front office is re-thinking that contract."
HKmatt
Puffer Fry
Posts: 10
Joined: Wed Aug 08, 2018 10:35 am
Location (country): Hong kong

Re: constipated mbu!!

Post by HKmatt »

Hi all,

My mbu have the same problem, I noticed it have no poop for four day and not eating right.

25 gallon
PH 8, no2 # 0.01, ammonia # 0.1, no3 # 12.5, oto #0
Fish size 4 inches
User avatar
Pufferpunk
Queen Admin
Posts: 32764
Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
Gender: Female
My Puffers: Filbert, the 12" T lineatus
Punkster, the 4" red T miurus
Mongo, the 4" A modestus
2 T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
Also kept:
lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles
Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
Location: Chicago
Contact:

Re: constipated mbu!!

Post by Pufferpunk »

A 4" puffer belongs in a 55g & a mbu will even grow that tank out in a couple of months.
viewtopic.php?f=56&t=150

For constipation: 1 tbsp Epsom salt/5g.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
Post Reply