Help! - Mbu not eating!!

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
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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.
L!$A
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Help! - Mbu not eating!!

Post by L!$A »

Hey everyone.. as most of you I have a mbu puffer fish named Kaleeko. He has been acting pretty strange recently.. he hasn't eaten for 3 days. We put a cray in the tank.. and needless to say the cray is still alive. We have not changed anything recently.. other then the light schedule.

Test results from last night
pH: 6.4
Ammonia: 0
Nitrates: 50>20
Nitrites: 0
KH: 4 drops to yellow (soft)
GH: < 20mg

The only thing that I can possibly think of is the KH, GH and maybe pH but they are all stable and Kaleeko has been in these water parameters for almost a year and hasn't had any problems until now.. is he possibly becoming more senstive, or possibly sick??:confused::confused:
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Re: Help! - Mbu not eating!!

Post by Pufferpunk »

Tank size, puff's size, water change schedule? Feeding?
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

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Re: Help! - Mbu not eating!!

Post by Myaj »

Are his colors good? If they are, I wouldn't worry about it yet.

I have a turgidus that I'm pretty sure is female.. every few month's it will stop eating completely, for about 3 weeks, but never appear to lose weight (I'm thinking eggy?). Then suddenly it will be back at the glass demanding food every day.

The nitrates are still a little high, so more water changes won't hurt. Some puffers get crabby if they get over 20 I've found, while others don't really care.
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Re: Help! - Mbu not eating!!

Post by L!$A »

Sorry sorry forgot some info.. just so frustrated!

Tank size 120g 4x2x2, puffer size 10 inches (without tail), tank mates 4 tiger datnoids
Water schedule, 50% every week, sometimes will do an extra water change if needed.

Feeding is done once a day prawn/crab/mysis recently.. all extra food is removed from the tank


Amy, his colours are good at times, he has done this before, but never for this long.. I always thought it might be because he was just growing, this morning his colours were great. Last night his colours where blotchy and he was resting in his normal corner as he usually does .. This morning he was swimming around, still looks nice and chubby.. just don't want to miss anything. He is due for a water change tonight!
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Re: Help! - Mbu not eating!!

Post by Pufferpunk »

What is the pH of your tap water? I'm thinking larger WC are in order.
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!"
L!$A
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Re: Help! - Mbu not eating!!

Post by L!$A »

Very, very very low 6.0 if not lower! Our tap water is good for ammonia though 0

We will certainly be doing a large water change tonight.
I was also wondering what a stable solution would be for harder water, I feel it might be a little too soft.. or am I worrying about something that has no relevance..?
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Re: Help! - Mbu not eating!!

Post by Myaj »

You probably don't have to worry about it too much, but I wonder if it wouldn't hurt to do something to stablilize it a bit more. I've always had liquid rock water so I'm not experienced at all with working with soft water.. but I *think* there are a few simple and natural (non-chemical) ways to make it a bit more stable. I want to say baking soda is one of those ways, another might be changing your substrate to something that buffers like argonite, or adding a media bag of crushed coral to your filter.. but you'll have to find out for sure from someone that knows more about soft water than I do! :)

Check your tank temperature too.. while warm water speeds up metabolism (and then they eat more), if it gets too warm they can get crabby too.. so if your weather is hot your tank might have warmed up more than you realize.
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C lorteti
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suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles
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Re: Help! - Mbu not eating!!

Post by Pufferpunk »

No relevance, unless you're a coral.
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!"
L!$A
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Re: Help! - Mbu not eating!!

Post by L!$A »

Temp is at a stable 80.. has been for a few months now, I wish I could say it's been super hot here.. darn rain!!
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Re: Help! - Mbu not eating!!

Post by Savvy »

Awe Lisa, I hope he's just being moody or something simple and that everything will be just fine with him! I'm sure he'll jump back in a day or so. I'll be thinking about you guys and sending some positive vibes!

Hope all is well!
Courage is not the absence of fear, but the judgement that the outcome is far more important than the fear itself
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Location: Pitt Meadows, BC

Re: Help! - Mbu not eating!!

Post by L!$A »

Thanks Savvy, I sure hope it's just one of his *moods* he gets like this every now and then, but never for this long!!
& After he gets out of his mood he's usually grown a bit... hopefully that is just what is happening.. good thing we're getting his new tank ASAP!
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Re: Help! - Mbu not eating!!

Post by pufferpuggirl »

I personally would not worry, because 3 days is nothing to a puffer that size. And if he's not looking skinny or malnourished, then I don't think you've got anything to worry about at this time.

Just out of curiosity, have you tried offering some different foods, I mean, different from what you normally feed him? Maybe he's a bit bored with what he's being offered -- now I don't know that's the case, just throwing out some ideas. I know my Palembang loved earthworms and couldn't seem to get enough and then one day just decided he wasn't going to eat them anymore.

Whatever the case may be, I hope Kaleeko is back to his normal self before too long. :D
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Location (country): CANADA
Location: Pitt Meadows, BC

Re: Help! - Mbu not eating!!

Post by L!$A »

I was thinking he may just not want what was being offered, so I tried putting some garlic on it, and no luck with that either :(.. We're going to try out this stuff called "seafood melody" I seen it at our local TNT and it's a mix of frozen raw seafood, so hopefully he's bored or something!!!
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10G - snails (want to move 2 DPs here, but need another snail tank first
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Re: Help! - Mbu not eating!!

Post by Savvy »

He he, I actually just bought the same bag the other day of the Seafood Melody. So far Teka does not like the octopus :lol:

Maybe that's all Kaleeko needs is new food choices :D Wishing you luck!
Courage is not the absence of fear, but the judgement that the outcome is far more important than the fear itself
L!$A
Former Staff Member
Posts: 1045
Joined: Fri Nov 06, 2009 5:30 pm
Gender: Female
My Puffers: Fahaka - Nala
Congo - Baloo
Arrowhead - Yzma

R.I.P
Kaleeko - Mbu Puffer
Milly - Fangs Puffer
Location (country): CANADA
Location: Pitt Meadows, BC

Re: Help! - Mbu not eating!!

Post by L!$A »

I sure hope it is something that simple! :)
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