I bought a small fahaka puffer (roughly 1 inch) from a local shop during the first week of April. During the past 2 months he has grown very little. He is currently housed in a 40g long. I feed him multiple times a day. I mostly feed live blackworms and occasional frozen bloodworms and a pond snail every few days. I feed him until he's got little pudge, but after a few hours he usually looks pretty skinny again, almost like I don't feed him. Hes a very active fish and doesn't appear to have any signs of stress.
Is he stunted? Does he have worms? Why isn't he growing?
What's wrong with my fahaka
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.
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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Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32773
- 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: What's wrong with my fahaka
![[welcome]](./images/smilies/welcome.gif "welcome")
Sounds just like the lil fella I bought 18 years ago.
http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/lib ... treatment/
He grew to a big puffer & is still alive today!
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!"
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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pokeystar
- Figure 8 Puffer
- Posts: 103
- Joined: Thu Apr 28, 2016 4:41 am
- My Puffers: Fahaka aka Mr Big Puff
2 GSP Pickle and Noodle
My children name the fish - Location (country): Ireland
Re: What's wrong with my fahaka
Sounds like a worming is in order. My fahaka was growing but slowly until I had a heater issue and then almost lost him. After a succesful worming he looks better then ever great colours and growing quickly
Re: What's wrong with my fahaka
Update: I medicated the puffer. I left it in a 10g hospital tank. Treated with parasyte guard by tetra (Active Ingredients: Praziquantel, Dflubenzuron, Metronidazole and Acriflavin). I medicated the water daily and made a concentrated mix to soak it's bloodworms. After 9-10 days it looked the same. Poop has never been stringy, but the fish always looks emaciated. It still looks that way regardless of what I feed it or how many times I feed it. Within a few hours it goes from plump to bony. The fish has since been returned to its 40g long. I've had this puffer for over 3 months now and still not an inch of growth....
Re: What's wrong with my fahaka
Update: Ran out of live food with no sign of lfs getting more for awhile. Got the puffer to feed on NLS pellets. Fed twice daily. Puffer looks much better now, consistently plump and healthy appearing. Hasn't put on a lot of growth but it appears to have bulked up a tiny bit. I'd still say that it's under 2". Hopefully it starts growing more soon. I was anticipating to have a 4 inch fish by now. If I don see significant growth soon I may sell and try to find one thats already a little bigger.
Re: What's wrong with my fahaka
Its been awhile! The puffer is looking a lot great and has filled out. Id say its about 3.5" now and I've had it for 11 months. Still kept in a 40 gallon long by itself. Started feeding it freeze dried shrimp and snails a few months ago. Its a very active and interactive fish. Some days its friendly and other days it tries to bite at you.
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Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32773
- 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: What's wrong with my fahaka
That's great! What are your plans for upgrading?
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!"
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
Re: What's wrong with my fahaka
Ive got a 100g (60x18") that I'm slowly emptying out. My plan is to plant the tank heavily and in a few months put the puffer in there.