Any idea what's wrong with my puffer?

[Razor_109]

Hello,

I have my puffer since like 2 - 3 weeks. I added some more hidingplaces to the aquarium last week and since then the puffer just doesnt come out anymore, during the day atleast (at night i dont know).

Also his eating habit is very strange, he almost doesnt eat a thing. I feed him living larves and frozenfood.
But no snails, i now just learned snails are a very important part of his diet?

So i was thinking to go to the local fishshop and get some snails, hold them in a seperete aquarium for breeding and then feed some to my puffer.

Could the lack of snails be the problem? Or is my puffer sick? Looks like his collors are a litte bit vale..

My puffer is a Carinotetraodon irrubesco, so a Red Eyed Puffer and should be 100% Freshwater? (http://www.thepufferforum...a/Freshwater/C_Irrubesco/)

PS. Any tips on keeping snails? Do they need filtration? or something else?

[Razor_109]

Btw,

its a 60L aquarium, tested the PH and NO2 my self with sets, NO2 should be 0 +/- and PH around 7.

Lives with a couple of tetra's.

[crazedpuffer]

Can you answer all the questions in red please?
Is his belly sunken in? If so he may have internal parasites.
It could also be he's just getting used to the tank.

[Razor_109]

1. pH = 7, NO2 = 0,0 (rest i dont have the ability to measure, will let it check asap in my LFS)

2. 60L tank, 9 Neon Tetra's, 5 Barbus Pentazona, 1 Barbus Pentazona, 2 Barbus Pentazona

3. Diet: Dry Food, Frozenfood and living red larves. Once in 2 days.. sometimes living larves instead of frozen. (No Snails yet, could this be the problem?)

4. Added some more hiding spots for the puffer (koralstone and moved some plants)

5. 3 weeks or so. Cycled it with a filter from a friend which is still running now in my aquarium and contains the postitive bacteria.



As far as i can see his belly is still white, and not sunken in.. only he looks a maybe a little vale.. only he is not eating well.. never see him eat something.. just maybe 1 larve and then he's gone.

[edmlfc1]

Not feeding snails would not be a problem yet. The reason you feed snails is to help grind down the puffers teeth or at least keep them from over growing. I keep my snails in a 2.5 gallon with an air stone/sponge filter and some java moss. That's pretty much all you have to do for them. Or if you have another fw aquarium you could drop some in there and they will start to multiply. I mostly use ramshorn and pond snails. Do not use Malaysian Trumpet Snails, these have extremely hard shells that can break his/her teeth. You can also feed clams or mussles on the shell, this will also help keeping his/her teeth worn down. I know when I move items around in the tank my puffers tend to hide for a few days. It may just be getting familiar with it's surroundings.

Here is a great article about what to feed a puffer:
http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/lib ... r-puffers/

[Razor_109]

hello,

i just watched my puffer and checked it's belly..

its not really big, and quite white. But in the middle a brown collored stripe goes from the front to the back. Is this normal or is this a sign for parasites? And what is a easy way to check this?

[Troender]

The stripe has nothing to do with parasites. How big is he?

[Razor_109]

like 3 cm i guess.. any suggestions what to get for food that he will 'love' so he will activily eat it.. and not like the red larves or frozen larves, he just picks at it when it comes his way.. but doesnt activily come for it.

[edmlfc1]

Have you tried: bloodworms, mealworms or gut-loaded live ghost shrimp?

[Troender]

If I understand it right, he ate properly when you got him? But things changed when you changed his tank? Or has he been picky from the start?

I would always suspect IPs when a puffer is new in the house. Most puffers are wild caught, and will bring a load of parasites. The stress they've been through when getting caught, packed, shipped, packed again, shipped again, and so on, until they end up in our tanks, is enormous, and the puffers often get ill when they come to their new home. Their immune system is lowered because of the stress they've been through, and then the body is less fit to control the parasites. I always take wild caught fishes through a deworming when I get them into my house (after a few days of letting them get to know their new home and lowering their stress level - medication can be a stress factor in itself).

Have you tried feeding him shrimp/prawn? That's always been the way to success when I've had trouble with puffers getting started eating in their new home. If you've had trouble making him eat from the start, it could be that he doesn't recognize the food you feed him as real food. If that's the problem, you have to trick him into believing dead food is alive (a shrimp/prawn in a thread will do the trick).

But if he did eat well when you got him, I would suspect IPs being the problem.

But most of all, I suspect you are having high nitrates in your tank. 60 litres on a single irrubesco is already pushing it - it will work when the puffer still is small, but you have to have very good routines for water changes. But 60 litres for a puffer and all the rest of the inhabitants is way too much. It's not an easy thing knowing that it can be the problem, as you probably don't see the other fishes reacting on the nitrate level. But puffers are much more sensitive to nitrates than most other fishes, so any high level will affect the fish.

And a few more questions before I finish this long speach Do you soak the dried food and thaw the frozen food before feeding? If you don't, it can give digestion problems for your puffer.

[Razor_109]

no he never ate much.. but he was more active and swimming around.. now he's just hiding and sometimes comes out for couple of seconds.

Will try some other food, and check nitrates in LFS.

Ps. I do thaw the frozenfood and dry food is not for him... its for the other fishes.. he doesnt eat it.

[Razor_109]

Today i tried feeding him some earthworms, i put them close to him and he went after them.. bit a couple of times but then the worms escaped in the bottom so i had to get them out to prevent decading..

But tonight he is more active again, he came swimming around a couple of times and i was able to make some pictures.



His Belly (little out of focus..)

[plurmaster]

He's a handsome fella!! The strip on belly meaning he's a male. He looks healthy!!!I feed mine frozen blood worm and he eats it. I did try to give him frozen krill for treat but he doesnt like it but i know Irrubesco are hunters. They like to hunt at night. Maybe try feeding him at night and turn the lights off see if he eats then. I heard sometimes u can soak the food in garlic but dont take my word because i never tryed.

[plurmaster]

For the first time i added ghost shrimp in with my Irrubesco. I watched them see if they will eat it but they seems not interested. In the afternoon i see my male tummy is full and 2 shrimp were missing which is the 2 smallest ghost shrimp. I was wondering if My Irrubesoc ate em. I been sitting on my couch trying to watch them in action which i finally did. The male chase the ghost shrimp down and continuosly nipping at it till the shrimp stop struggling and he will bite him one at a time then my female Irrubesco will come follow after. The one My male Irrubesco ate was same size as he is!!!! So i think they like to hunt especially at night and my kitchen is dark during the daytime because no windows.

[Nick]

They are very efficient, deadly low light hunters.