Help my pea puffer won't eat!!!

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.
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Outerspacepuffer
Puffer Fry
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Jun 04, 2018 10:55 pm
Location (country): USA

Help my pea puffer won't eat!!!

Post by Outerspacepuffer »

I had this puffer for about 3 months and he had a pal who died shortly after due to high ammonia. Rocket (The puffer who won't eat) was perfectly healthy however lots of weeks later he decided he won't eat for a week and get very skinny. He ate after his little moment and seemed perfectly happy with his other mates (tetra, barbed wire fish, sucker,+other fish along the way but not at the same time. I have prime to keep the water safe but the other serum(idk what it was but my dad probably does) ran out but adults said it doesn't have to be in the fishes routine. The water temperature is below Luke warm but doesn't seem to bother fish (its summer). 3 fake plants are in the 5 gal tank, 1 cave thing, heater, bubble maker, and filter. There are currently 1 ghost shrimp, 1 pink finned tetra, and a brand new Pea Puffer. I just recently moved and Rocket might be stressed from that, and his brine shrimp melted and we couldn't get another one right away but got the same brand of shrimp 2 days later (i know that is bad but my parents wouldnt go shopping):but he didn't eat it( we got another puffer that same day). Now its been 5 days and he wouldn't eat. I gave him brine shrimp, freeze dried shrimp, fish flakes, and granules and still won't eat. I've looked for bloodworms and wasn't in store and can't buy online at this moment. Rocket keeps getting sucked into his filter and I know he is not going to continue his life. I wanted to check the pH levels but parents won't but kits ( yes, I am a teen\kid). Please help me!
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Pufferpunk
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Gender: Female
My Puffers: Filbert, the 12" T lineatus
Punkster, the 4" red T miurus
Mongo, the 4" A modestus
2 T biocellatus
C valentini
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Also kept:
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Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
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Re: Help my pea puffer won't eat!!!

Post by Pufferpunk »

It seems that you are really in over your head with this hard to keep fish. Can you return it?
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!"
snacksforfindlay
Puffer Fry
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Jun 10, 2018 7:23 pm
Location (country): United States

Re: Help my pea puffer won't eat!!!

Post by snacksforfindlay »

Not an expert, very rusty at the hobby and made an account again because I was planning to ask for some advice on a couple tanks I'm planning to start, but I've only really had success feeding them frozen blood worms. Not sure if that's a sufficient diet either which is one of the questions I actually wanted to ask, but they will readily take them from tweezers. If they don't stock them at your local pet shop then you should return them to them if you haven't already. They won't eat flakes or pellets.
RavenInkk
Puffer Fry
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Jun 15, 2018 4:24 am
Location (country): Ireland

Re: Help my pea puffer won't eat!!!

Post by RavenInkk »

Yeah I'd return the puffer, they're difficult fish but they mostly just eat blood worms and its best if they're alive. It's your choice but he definitely wont eat flakes, pellets, etc. wiggle the blood worms on the ends of a tongs. Try find other fish stores, travel if you have to, find people that keep fish in your area, make friends are reptile shows, try everything you can and if you cant find bloodworms soon then please bring him back, i know its hard to do but it's whats best for him if you cant feed him.
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