Hourah! finally!

[wannapuffer-20g]

Well today i called petsmart and after about a month of searching they had some dwarf puffers in.

i tried taking the ones that were most active and had as less concacve stomachs as possible.

i put them in and there exploring.

also the women at petsmart was nice enough to give me about 10-20 of those little nuissance snails.

so i dropped in 4 of those tiny snails but the dwarfs arent reacting yet.

but im not worried ill let them rest tonight and then tmr ill try feeding them again.

ive got ghost shrimp(gut loaded), snails, and dried blood worms.

hazaa! snap,crack, and popple are here to stay!

im so happy

[boomer]

Congrats!!!

Looking forward to seeing some piccies

[wannapuffer-20g]

i have a digi cam but can never upload pics on this complicated forum.

but bad news people!

when i first got them they all seemed kinda sick with there stomachs not fat.

but i bought 3 anyway cause i was looking for so long.

well this morning i woke up and found one dead at the bottom with a few ghost shrimp slowly eating him.

i took him out put him back in the fish bag with some water and put it in the freezer so it doesnt smell bad.

well now ive got 2 left.

one is actually doing alot better, hes bitten the antennas off some snails and eat one.

the other which has a more concave stomach(hungrier) is just swimming close to the ground slowly.

i crushed a snail a dropped it right in front of his head but he swam away scared so i left it there and maybe 10 minutes later the other one found it and gobbled it up.

what can i do to save the seond one?

at the moment i have ghost shrimp, dried bllod worms, and snails.

i was thinking of putting the one that isnt eating the snail tank so he can go on his own and maybe eat some snails.

should i do that? or what should i do?

i dont want the 2nd one dying on me.

also im gonna go back to petsmart to get refunded for the 3rd dead one.
maybe ill try to get another one, but fat chance they have any left.

[RTR]

Can you get live California blackworms? Most fish stores sell these as live food. With a cone feeder, these are irrestible to DPs.

[wannapuffer-20g]

no not at the moment.

but is there anyway that ic an attract hgim with the food i have?

right now hes just at the top breathing hard with his mouth above water almost.

should i put him in the snail bowl a little?

or is blackworms really what i ahve to do?

[Jayhawk]

Frozen blood worms may work too (thaw in tank water and just feed a few at a time - they can really foul your water otherwise). I think PetSmart (also my only local option for DPs) is breeding their own, but they come in half starved so some are doomed. I'd just keep replacing the ones that die (if they have any left) until you have a healthy batch. Personally, I bought 5, but only ended up losing one - they do have a return policy for dead fish, right?

One of my did have internal parasites. I soaked snails and bloodworms in levamisole (Discomed) and he survived. The other three were fine from the start.

Congrats on the little guys, but don't beat yourself up if a couple die.

Eric

[wannapuffer-20g]

well i wont beat my self up.

one dead, one not eating, one eating but really slow.

the one that isnt eating has been put in a little tupperware(safe) with flake food, dried blood worms, an algue wafer, 2 crushed snails, and one live snail.

im gonna keep him in there for maybe 30 minutes and see how he does.

then ill put him back.

i heard if i sock the snails in garlic or sometin he might eat them?

[Jayhawk]

I've heard garlic can stimulate their appetite, too, but not tried it. I'd leave the little non-eater in the main tank - sometimes they don't eat just because of the change of environment. I had a couple that didn't eat for 2 or 3 days at first...and then they realized they were hungry and were fine after that. Flake, tablets, etc. really won't interest puffers - it's the rare one that eats anything like that.


Eric

[wannapuffer-20g]

alright well ill leave him be for today but tmr im bringin in the big boys!

garlic!

hopefully hes not draculas brother or sometin

[boomer]

What are your water parameters like ? It sounds like hes gasping to me.
I'm not an expert and quite new to the puffer game but I have read somewhere on this site about gasping.

I'll have a look

[Sion]

All that food is what is killing their water!!!! Fish the food out ASAP. Leave them alone with only enough food for one day...you tank and filter system cannot handle ANY leftovers in the tank...your water will go bad very quickly.

Also do you have any new plastic sand or figures in there? Is the tank a new one with fresh glue in the seams? Off gases can kill in small young tanks. This problems won't show up on a test.... but when I had them my fahaka gasped and wouldn't eat until in died in 48 hours.

[boomer]

O.k. There's a thread dated 7th July in the hospital section called 'Sick Dwarf Puffer' by someone called crayfish.
It goes for 7 pages so you should be able to glean some info from that as it seems he had the same problems as you.

I personally would recommend taking all the uneaten food out as it will destroy your water quality (as recommende by sion) because your filter bacteria will not be used to such a big load. Then test the parameters.

Going without food for a day wont harm them at all, remember they are predators in the wild.

It could just be stress and he needs time to settle in, but don't take my word for it, i'm no expert.

Good luck

[wannapuffer-20g]

lol i think u guys mis read it.

there isnt any food thats littering in the 10g.

i put all that food in a 2.5 gallon bowl, transfered the water from the 10g then put him in it.

then for maybe 15 minutes i put in different foods for him, he ddint eat any of'em

the 10g doesnt have any food in it except LIVE snails and ghost shrimp.

thats not the reason im sure.

but the ones that healthy is a healthy yellow, while the one that isnt eating has turned to brown and is getting darker.

i ahve to get him to eat! but hooooooooooooooooow

[bsplenden]

I won't recommend transferring the fish around to feed it because it might be further stressed up in the process. And the more stressed it becomes, the more it won't touch food.

So maybe just leave it there and hopes it starts eating soon? There is really nothing much you can do except make sure everything is right and hope it starts eating.

[bsplenden]

Sorry, double post.