My puffer is not eating! What can I do?
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.
My puffer is not eating! What can I do?
Hi everybody, I am new to this forum and I have had my puffer for a week. It was sold to me as a "green topaz " and after serching the net it also looks like a ceylon puffer. He is about 4.5 inches long . I am keeping him in a 32" tank (96 litres) with just one little albino pleco. The filter was well mature as the tank had been running for a few years. Water parameters are: PH 7.8, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrates 5.0ppm. I havent added any salt yet as the fish was kept in freshwater in the shop. I am planning to keep him in brackish water in future and could do with some advice on that as well. I have tried to feed mussells, prawns ( with and without shell) and live river shrimps but he hasn't eat anything yet. I suspected some form of bacterial infection so I treated the tank with Octozin( from Waterlife) and also with Melafix ( from API). The fish himself looks better than he did in the first couples of days but still not eating. Any advice? Many thanks.
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cobra1713
- Green Spotted Puffer
- Posts: 316
- Joined: Sat Dec 01, 2007 3:26 am
- Location: Apple Valley, CA
Re: My puffer is not eating! What can I do?
well first off i would start switching to brakish as soon as you can, just raise the salinity by .002 a week using marine salt, and the cycle will hold on the tank.
which means getting rid of or moving the albino pleco.
second just keep trying different foods (ask what the fish store was feeding it) i would suggest bloodworms, or earthworms.
also the cyelon puffers do require a 40 gallon tank in the long run.
but dont worry to much about the eating, just make sure you remove any uneatin food and keep trying, if he doesnt eat in a couple days after being in your tank you might look into treating for internal parasites, im not sure which meds are the best but make sure its a med that you have to soak the food in, and not on that just goes in the water. (if you decide to treat for IP)
which means getting rid of or moving the albino pleco.
second just keep trying different foods (ask what the fish store was feeding it) i would suggest bloodworms, or earthworms.
also the cyelon puffers do require a 40 gallon tank in the long run.
but dont worry to much about the eating, just make sure you remove any uneatin food and keep trying, if he doesnt eat in a couple days after being in your tank you might look into treating for internal parasites, im not sure which meds are the best but make sure its a med that you have to soak the food in, and not on that just goes in the water. (if you decide to treat for IP)
60g with 2 angels, 1 yoyo loach, Upside down catfish, Clown Loach, 1 leopard Ctenopoma, 12 black skirt tetras and a L201 Pleco
30g GSP tank (soon to be 35 gal Hex)
30g GSP tank (soon to be 35 gal Hex)
Re: My puffer is not eating! What can I do?
Thanks for the advice Cobra.
I can easily move the albino pleco as i a few other tanks.
In the fish store they were feeding him on live river shrimps. There are a couple of river shrimps in the tank at the moment swimming well under his nose but he does not try to eat them.
I will do a water change tomorrow and begin to increase the salinity as you suggested. The tank is 96 liters or 20 gallons ( 25US gallons). How much salt do you think I need to add in order to increase by .002? Do I dissolve the salt in a buckett first or straight in the tank? Is it best to add the salt to RO water?
Sorry for asking so many questions. Many thanks.
I can easily move the albino pleco as i a few other tanks.
In the fish store they were feeding him on live river shrimps. There are a couple of river shrimps in the tank at the moment swimming well under his nose but he does not try to eat them.
I will do a water change tomorrow and begin to increase the salinity as you suggested. The tank is 96 liters or 20 gallons ( 25US gallons). How much salt do you think I need to add in order to increase by .002? Do I dissolve the salt in a buckett first or straight in the tank? Is it best to add the salt to RO water?
Sorry for asking so many questions. Many thanks.
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Nick
- Former Staff Member
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Re: My puffer is not eating! What can I do?
No reason to bother with RO water for brackish. You'll want to use about 2/3 cup of salt in the change water, pre-dissolved in the bucket. Make sure you have the marine salt mixed used for SW or reef tanks, not aquarium salt or other "tonic salts."
No matter how magnificent your successes or devastating your failures, the worlds' approximately 5 billion impoverished people could not possibly care less.
Re: My puffer is not eating! What can I do?
Thank you Nick. I've bought some marine salt and an idrometer today. I didn't know marine salt was so expensive.
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Pufferpunk
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Re: My puffer is not eating! What can I do?
What kind did you buy? Get the cheapest--usually what's on sale will do.
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: My puffer is not eating! What can I do?
I 've done a water change this evening and raised the salinity to about 1004 ( I was aiming at 1002). The good news is that shortly after the WC he ate a whole mussel and a chunk of prawn! Thanks everybody for helping.
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Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
- Posts: 32976
- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
- Gender: Female
- My Puffers: Puffers I have kept:
T lineatus
T miurus
A modestus
T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
C lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles - Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
- Location: Greenville, SC
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Re: My puffer is not eating! What can I do?
There ya go!
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: My puffer is not eating! What can I do?
One more question. I am feeding one cooked mussel just once a day. Is this apprpriate? Is it enough?
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Bonsai_girl
- Dwarf Puffer
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Re: My puffer is not eating! What can I do?
Cooking removes many of the nutrients - just crack the shell and feed raw (thawed if you've had it frozen).
Does his tummy look nice and round after feeding?
Does his tummy look nice and round after feeding?
Re: My puffer is not eating! What can I do?
Yes, it does actually. When you say raw mussel do you mean live mussel? I haven't seen raw frozen mussels in shops. Where do you buy yours?
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Bonsai_girl
- Dwarf Puffer
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- Location: Surrey, UK
Re: My puffer is not eating! What can I do?
I buy mine at supermarkets or from fishmongers. Bring them home (live or in pre-packaged net bags), sort through them and throw away any that are already open, and then put them in the freezer. Leave them for a few days to kill off the nasties and then take them out individually to feed. I thaw in vitamin water.
Re: My puffer is not eating! What can I do?
Thank you bonsai girl, nice tip. I will try that. What kind of vitamins?
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Bonsai_girl
- Dwarf Puffer
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Re: My puffer is not eating! What can I do?
I use Aquamedic Aquabiovit, but there are probably many others in use by people on here 