Figure 8 wont eat.

[bugeye]

Hello again everyone, can you help?

I have a 50 (US) gallon tank, mangrove set-up, good KH, GH, pH, Nitrite '0', Nitrate '0' SG 1.003, i.e. water quality is spot on!

My F8 lives with 4 mollies (x1male x3 females). Recently, the F8 stopped eating. He investigates the food, takes a nibble and then swims away. His colouration is excellent and there is no sign of parasitic infection. The thing that really worries me is that his swimming patterns have not significantly changed. He still investigates most of the tank, just doesn't seem to be hungry. His staple diet is freshwater snails (which I breed myself), daphnia, tubifex worms and brine shrimp. I just cant work out what the problem is.

Regards

[Boxermom]

Hi. I deleted your double post.

His diet isn't sufficient, IMO. Tubifex are trash worms, nasty things. Daphnia are probably too small, and brine shrimp aren't very nutritious and should only be an occasional treat. Check out our food article in the library for more nutritious options.

How long have you had him? Its possible that the mollies are the problem. I had to remove all of the mollies from my GSP tank as they were bullying him, especially during meal times.

[OraLacerta]

I second everything Boxermom said. Mollies can get very aggressive during feeding time. I might have had to take out mine if my Figure Eights didn't decide to lay down the law every once in a while.

You should try to add some more variety to his diet. Frozen krill, prawns, bloodworms, cockles, squid, mussels, SF Bay's Marine Cuisine and Emerald Entree and many other frozen foods are widely available and would be more nutritious. I feed my Figure Eights different food every feeding time and they are extremely healthy. The snails are excellent and I would continue feeding them on a weekly basis because my Figure Eight did develop overgrown teeth after a year of being fed a diet of only the frozen foods mentioned above. After starting a weekly regimen of feeding snails my puffers' teeth are well worn down.

You have plenty of 'crunch', so just add some more variety and your puffer may just be enticed to eat again. If not, pay close attention to those mollies because the puffer may be avoiding food to avoid the mollies' aggression. And the females can be just as aggressive as the males; my black female molly would be a terror if all the fish in my Figure Eight tank (including my Bumble Bee Goby) didn't boss her around a bit to keep her in place.