Puffer not eating ( 13 yr old green spotted)

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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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Pepefish
Puffer Fry
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat Jan 26, 2019 2:04 pm
Location (country): Wales United Kingdom

Puffer not eating ( 13 yr old green spotted)

Post by Pepefish »

My 13 yr old
Puffer has not been eating for past week. He is spending lots of time vertically next to filters or hiding at back ( but not in his usual hidey places. He’s 3.5-4 inches and is in a 180l Tank. Ammonia and nitrite is zero. Nitrate is 7 and ph is 7.8. Consistent with “normal” levels.

No recent changes to food/environment. He eats mixtures of cockle in shell, frozen bloodworm krill and life brine shrimp. There’s also some trumpet snails in tank been there for 6+ months he hasn’t ever shown any
Interestin these.

He shares tank with 8-10 ghost shrimps ( bought as food but he seems to like the company) they’ve been in tank for around 10-12 weeks.

He looks very bloated and sluggish

He’s normally like an excited puppy spitting water or jumping and hitting top of tank if we’re late with food.
His mouth looks a bit weird too ( it’s more open than usual) his beak is fine.

Someone suggested peas in case it’s constipation but he wasn’t interested at all.

He normally feeds off a spoon but he’s just bit interested :-(

Im guessing it’s most likely to be old age but I’ve had him longer than my eldest child so if there any suggestions on what else I can try i’m Willing to try anything!!
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Pufferpunk
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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
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Also kept:
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Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
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Re: Puffer not eating ( 13 yr old green spotted)

Post by Pufferpunk »

Specific gravity? You can treat constipation with 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!"
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