Picky puffer

[rbulin]

I have a GSP puffer . My puffer for some reason wont eat . I started feeding him omnivore food that you defrost from the freezer and he ate most of it and it all seemed fine. I was trying different things and got some freeze dried krill that he eats occasionally . Now he wont eat the omnivore food and i have feed him brine shrimp that is frozen and he seemed to love it but i know its not healthy. I dnt know what to feed him and it is hard to find snails around here and i heard a mysis shrimp dnt know what to try and he needs to eat going on about 2 days without eating need some help? I dnt want him to die any comments would be great

thanks,
rick

[yunachin]

Have you tried clam, shrimp or mussel?
There is a great feeding article in the library you should check out.
Also sometimes garlic can help entice their appetite.
Do you give him a vitamin supplement?

[rbulin]

no,no and no
and when you say garlic what do you mean? is it a like a bottle you buy that you put in the food im confused lol . i do not give him a supplement , should i? and where do i find that at? im new with puffers this is my first one so you might need to explain it more to me. sorry lol

thanks for your info
-Rick

[yunachin]

Not a problem.
Check the library for articles on feeding and Green Spotted Puffer general care.

Not many puffer will turn up their noses to clams, mussels or shrimp. You can get them in the seafood section of your grocery store and defrost them as needed in a cup of tank water. Freeze the remaining to save them for later.
You can purchase a liquid garlic in a local fish store or chop your own fine cloves and roll the food in it. I think you should try the mussels or clams first before the garlic. You will probably have luck seeing as the seafood is so pungent as is.
A liquid vitamin is good for any diet for fish. I use Gel Tek vitamins that are readily available in the US at a good price. You can find them in your local fish store or online.
What type of water is your friend in? An ample setting would be medium brackish to marine which is about 1.012-1.022 salinity. A hydrometer can help you test your salinity. Those can be purchased at your local fish store as well. The recommended tank size for them is 30 gallons as well. If he is a baby (1 inch or smaller) you can work your way up to something bigger but keep on the water changes if the tank is smaller. You want to do about 50% + per week of water changes to lessen the bio-load.
Like I said, read the article because it will give you lots of general information to help. We can clear up anything else you need here.
What is the new little puffers name?
Oh and welcome to the forum. Better late than never eh?

[LilGreenPuffer]

Hi! Good luck with the little guy. And also, puffers can go weeks without eating and recover to full health, so if this continues, you can take the time you need to solve the problem.

[rbulin]

thanks for all your help. His name is Porkey because when i first got him his belly got so big and it seemed like he ate a lot lol

[Drix]

My puffer Shemp got really picky also he would only eat bloodworms, I had to just put other forms of food in there and watch him. I would give him some time to eat it if he didnt then i took it out and tried agian the next day. Eventually i got him off his bloodworm addiction. I make sure that that he gets a varied diet of bloodworms, frozen shrimp, live ghost shrimp, and pieces of crab leg. It took awhile but he came around. I also changed there feeding times its varied everyotherday then every third day.

[rbulin]

well he is eating now i got him to eat some mysis shrimp and he ate them up still gonna try other foods thanks for all the help guys and gals

[LilGreenPuffer]

Yay!