Dwarf Puffer Trouble

[Pandlers]

Last Friday I got a dwarf puffer (named Poseidon, or Posey) shipped to me from LiveAquaria. I instacycled the tank, a five-gallon Marineland Eclipse corner tank, with Tetra SafeStart. He's been really shy ever since I got him though, and runs away at the sight of me. This has made feeding him really hard, and I don't really know if he's eating the small pond snails I put in the tank...

I tried every day when I saw him near the open part of the tank, and he'd run away. At one point I saw him kinda nibble at one, but he ran away right after and didn't come out. Unfortunately, the day after that happened I noticed that the live plants I got from Petco were dying, and adding a lot of unwanted debris to the tank - so I had to remove them all and add a few leftover plastic plants I had. The only plant that seemed to survive is the Java moss

It's been a week since I got him, and I might just be overreacting, but I can't tell if he's eating or not, and I want to know what I can do to help. I have frozen bloodworms that I thaw out to feed him. I've tried a turkey baster, an eye dropper, feeding tongs, and today I even dropped a whole frozen cube into the cone feeder I bought, but he doesn't even seem interested in them.

He's been spending a lot of time near the top of the water near the top of my filter, (The tube stretches down into the tank, so it's not near a suck zone) and off to the side of my heater. He's also glass skating every now and then.

I tested my water today, so here are the parameters:

temp: 78 F (I've had issues with temp rises and drops as well, tank will go up from 70-72 to 80, I'll turn the heater down and leave the hood open, and it'll drop down to normal, any tips on keeping this more constant?)
Ammonia: .25 ppm (maybe a bit lower?)
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 0 ppm
pH: 7.5 - 7.6

Picture of the tests tubes:



Here's a picture of my set-up as well as a picture of Posey (first is most recent, it's blurry sorry, and second is the day I got him):









Thanks for any help in advance! I want Posey to stay healthy, and I'm just really worried. He also shares the tank with two Golden Rabbit Snails, but they don't seem to notice each other.

[scpion]

Couple of things..

The decos in your tank are displacing too much water.. Could be just 3g left in there.. Causing the water parameter to be very unstable.

Those hooded tanks tends to trap heat in there, causing temp swings.

Light that come with these tanks are usually unsuitable for most real plants.. That could explain your dying plants. Java moss are very undemanding

My dp simply refuse to eat anything dead/frozen. So now I only feed live snails I breed.

The tank is still uncycled. Keep up the wc. Move it to a larger tank or even bucket untill U get its tank cycled. I would seriously recommend a larger tank though.

Small tanks are very very difficult to keep stable.

[RTR]

+1 to scpion's post.

[Pandlers]

Couple of things..

The decos in your tank are displacing too much water.. Could be just 3g left in there.. Causing the water parameter to be very unstable.

Those hooded tanks tends to trap heat in there, causing temp swings.

Light that come with these tanks are usually unsuitable for most real plants.. That could explain your dying plants. Java moss are very undemanding

My dp simply refuse to eat anything dead/frozen. So now I only feed live snails I breed.

The tank is still uncycled. Keep up the wc. Move it to a larger tank or even bucket untill U get its tank cycled. I would seriously recommend a larger tank though.

Small tanks are very very difficult to keep stable.

Unfortunatly, I'm not able to get a larger tank quite yet, maybe in the future, but not now... I know it'll probably be a lot more difficult because of it, but I'm willing to do everything necessary. Should I take out the column thing then and replace with something else? Also, what % of water should I be changing daily to help this? As for the no eating of frozen foods, the only store that sells fish around me is Petco, and they don't really supply the live versions of any foods they'd eat. How might I get him more interested in snails, since I don't know if he's been eating the ones I had in the tank previously.

[Pufferpunk]

I'd replace it with plants, which will give the puffers places to hang out in & also help with filtration.

[Terrance]

You could taking out some of the gravel to free up more volume for water.

[Pufferpunk]

True, all you need is a thin layer.

[J-P]

try mysis shrimp. That may work.

[Pandlers]

Thanks for all the help guys! I went to petco to grab more plants, but it turns out they were having their $1 per gallon tank sale, so I ended up getting a ten gallon tank! Posey already seems to be a lot more comfortable. I've read on here soaking food in garlic might get puffer's appetites up, so while I try to find cheap live food online/live food near where I live, I'll try soaking the bloodworms in garlic. He also seems to be showing interest in snails. I saw him checking one out and circling it before swimming away. I'll keep up with a daily water change till the tank is fully cycled. C:

[Pufferpunk]

Fantastic! Did it come with all the trimmings, IE: filter, hood, light?

[Pandlers]

It didn't come with those, but I bought an Aqueon Reflector Hood & Light, and an AquaClear 20 filter. I'm still using my old heater, but it's taking a bit longer to heat up the tank, so I might end up buying a new one. C: What % of water should I change out daily to help with the cycling process?

[Pandlers]

I'm starting to get a little worried about Poseidon... He's still not eating and just now I found him laying in the cone feeder I have. I tried to see if he might take some food, and he didn't even swim away, nor did he look interested. About a minute later he started freaking out and tried to swim down out of the feeder, so I helped him out and tipped it and he darted away. I'm going to start doing 50% water changes every day to try and help, but does anyone else have any suggestions?

[puffykid]

Have you been following the exact instructions with the test kit especially all the shaking that comes with nitrates?

It would be nice to have an updated tank parameters, as for water changes because the tank is still in the tail end of the cycle I suggest bumping the water changes to 2x 50% a day. Do a 50% in the morning and 1 in the evening, don't try to feed him again until he is starting to feel better as its adding in extra nitrates. When you do the water changes are you using prime to de-chlorination the water? If you got prime I would suggest doing a 50% water change right now if one hasn't been done in several hours.

[bertie 83]

+1 to the above, do at least 2 50% changes daily, remove anything he may become trapped in too