Hi all. I recently purchased a spotted Congo puffer from a LFS. He was the last one they had in stock and he looked incredibly underfed/emaciated. I asked the staff about him and they showed me he was eating (quite vigorously) and seemed active and happy, so I went ahead to purchase him.
I placed him in a 5 gallon quarantine tank where he has been staying for the last 4-5 days now. On the second day after getting him, he began to refuse to eat anything. I’ve tried blood worms, snails, and crickets but nothing entices him.
Here’s a couple pictures of him, you can see just how skinny he is when I purchased him.
I’m dosing the 5 gallons hospital/quarantine tank with the following all within instructed doses:
Seachem Prime - 1mL
Seachem Stability - 2.5mL
Seachem Stressguard - 2.5mL
Seachem Kanaplex - 1 spoonful
Seachem Paraguard - 2.5mL
API Stress Zyme - 2.5mL
API Stress Coat+ -2.5mL
Aquarium Solutions Ultimate Water Conditioner - 2.5mL
The water parameters for the 5 gallon tank are pictured below:
As you can see there’s 0ppm for heavy metals, nitrites, or nitrates. The water is on the basic side, likely because of the medication being dosed. Additionally Hardness, Alkalinity, and Carbonates are all on the higher side which is typical for tap water in my area.
I perform a 100% water change (swap between 2 tanks) every 12 hours as the hospital tank does not have active filtration. After a water change I redose all water conditioners and medications to ensure consistent treatment.
I’m looking for any help from you for advice on how to nurse this guy back to health. Thank you!
Spotted Congo Puffer Not Eating…Help!
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.
Spotted Congo Puffer Not Eating…Help!
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Re: Spotted Congo Puffer Not Eating…Help!
You need to deworm them all. Use Pazii Pro
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!"