Dwarf puffer tries to eat but can't?

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
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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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J-P
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Re: Dwarf puffer tries to eat but can't?

Post by J-P »

the fact that it ate at all is an excellent sign. well done and keep up the good work.
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eduller
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Re: Dwarf puffer tries to eat but can't?

Post by eduller »

I'm happy to say I think little Storm is over whatever was causing her to not eat. I will still keep up the parasite meds for 3 more days just in case, but she is eating like a champ now. She is a big fan of the live blackworms. I'm so glad my LFS sells them. My bettas and my community tank folks love the live worms too :)
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Re: Dwarf puffer tries to eat but can't?

Post by Pufferpunk »

:hyper:
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!"
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hadla
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Re: Dwarf puffer tries to eat but can't?

Post by hadla »

Glad to hear that :)
Never trust big puffers. The fingers you save may be your own. -RTR
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Re: Dwarf puffer tries to eat but can't?

Post by Stratters »

Yay! :mwave:
Never trust big puffers. The fingers you save may be your own. RTR
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Re: Dwarf puffer tries to eat but can't?

Post by RTR »

Yup, live foods are great for getting captive fish to eat eagerly. Thankfully we have an excellent LFS here which handles multiple live foods. I just hope he does not retire while I'm still keeping fish...
Where's the fish? - Neptune
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