The Puffer Forum

are you in the states... if so they have something called selcon.. in a pink bottle... you can get it is the UK on Ebay sometimes, but not always. Believe that is what people on here use...

but for starters just use the veggie wafers... the sooner you can try and get him eating the better.

I use selcon and get it from drsfostersmith. I also use extreme garlic from drsfostersmith. Hope your little fellow feels better soon.

What do you put the extreme garlic on? The silly fish is hit and miss on foods, sometimes he'll eat rosies sometimes not, he wont eat anything else at the moment, probably try to pick up some shrimp tonight from the grocery store. He did not like ghost shrimp much. The only reason I give him rosies for now is because he needs to eat to live, he looks kind of thin to me already, I would prefer he not die due to starvation.

Just out of curiosity, anyone know if i could put a GSP with him? I know that they can be adapted to salty tanks, just curious if they could co-habitate.

How is your puffer today? I hope he is getting better.

You can soak any food you want to feed him. Although, I have never tried Extreme garlic, I was recommended by Yunachin to use soak the food in a little water and chopped garlic. Then before feeding remove the garlic pieces. I take it that Extreme garlic is in liquid form, so you won't have to remove pieces from the food. It really works for some reason, my fish turned into sharks.

He is doing very well, more energetic then I have ever seen him, swimming all over his poor little QT tank. I bought some guppies for him as opposed to rosies... they didn't last long at all, he saw them and just went crazy. If you have never fed super pregnant guppies to a puffer... its kind of disturbing. Lets just say I had babies for a short time swimming around the tank ... not for the feint of heart.

He seems to have adapted to lower SG pretty well, I never thought it would be such a chore cleaning up after a fishes eating, its as bad as a baby. He is going to be fun in the 75g when hes ready for it and it is ready for him.

Have you read the articles in the library about feeder fish and picky eaters?

Just incase you haven't:
library/feeding/problems-feeding-your-puffer/
library/feeding/feeders/

I'm afraid I can't really help any more than that, but it's good to hear he's doing well. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he will start eating and get better soon!

Thanks riggers.

Yes I have read both of those, I understand a lot of it, I am not all that concerned as far as ethics go though, I feel no sorrow for giving a minnow or guppy to my puffer. I realize it is not the most healthy thing to feed them, but I do feed them some algae wafers, sometimes just some frozen brine shrimp in order to gutload them. I havent yet gotten any vitamins but thats neither here nor there. He has lived the last 6 months in the pet store on rosy red minnows. This is what he is used to, this is what he wants. I am working on getting him to eat other things, but for now, I keep him alive I am continuing to experiment with things, but not to much success so far.

On the side though, the guppies were super pregnant, there were lots of little guppy yolk sacs in there so that was probably lots of extra nutrition (i'm messed up in the head, I know.)

Thanks everyone for keeping tabs on the puffer and the continued support! I will continue to keep you updated.

.... He needs a name some day. open to suggestions

I thought you probably had read them. I'm with you on the ethics side of it (although I don't like it when people hold the feeder fish there, so it can't move). It is natural after all, but for some reason i'm not sure i'd be able to do it . Well keep experimenting, i'm sure there's something he/she likes. Good luck!

Hydrokal wrote:I never thought it would be such a chore cleaning up after a fishes eating, its as bad as a baby. He is going to be fun in the 75g when hes ready for it and it is ready for him.

I think he is your baby!

Whenever, I go to the pet store, I always go and say hello to the porcupine there. I am sure he recognizes me because he gets excited. I really want to take him home, but I don't have a big enough tank. I am working on my wife to let me get a 100 plus gallon tank...

Anyway, sorry to digress...I just wanted to say that I think it will be all worthwile when he gets better. I think your puffer is not giving up that easy! Please keep us posted.

I'm glad your puffer is doing better, keep up the good work, your puffer is worth it! Continue to keep us posted, its great to hear a success story!!!

Eating rosy reds for 6 months could be exactly the reason he's sick now. Lowered immune system, due to poor diet.

Yeah, thats a good point, thats why I switched to extra nutritious pregnant guppies! nutritional cream filling, YAY! but I am also feeding them algae wafers before they get fed to the puffer. I am trying, can't find anywhere local that has vitamins for even a relatively reasonable price.

feeding him the right foods like market shrimp, clams, cockles, etc. instead of guppies is more important than the vitamins at this point.

So when you say market shrimp, are you talking like the uncooked tails or is there a way to buy the whole bloody shrimp and have it be small enough that he is actually interested?

i mean the tails like at the grocery store, their is a lot of good foods at the seafood counter, squid, crab legs, mussels, and the others mentioned above, all frozen.