The Puffer Forum

i am planning the tank swap this weekend but i have starte to put salt in the tank hes in at the moment. Its at .002 at the moment and he seems to be a bit more active although he is not eating anthing and hasnt since i got him which is a week ago The fungus isnt geting any worse and i am hopeing it starts to get better soon so taht he will eat somthing i am worried

Don't get too worried, puffers can easily go on hunger strikes lasting a week or two. He needs some time to settle in.

The higher salt levels will definately make him feel more comfortable, so I bet you'll see some improvment after you make the move. In the mean time, leave the salinity at 1.002, you don't need to crash the biofilter.

Pimafix and clean water are excellent for fungus, and Melafix and clean water are excellent for stress, so you should be good there.

What foods are you offering it? There's a good chance it was caught out of the wild and has never had to deal with captivity before, and is just stressed out on top of the fungus.

i have tried mussel with and without shell, cockles, prawn with and without shell and nothing seems to be of interest although today i tried shell on prawn and wiggled it in the water and he went for it untill he realized it wasnt alive so maybe he will only eat live foods so any advice on which live foods to try would be good

Often the easiest to start with is live worms (nightcrawlers). Once the puffer learns that you=food, it will be more willing to try the things you bring to it. Usually once they get a bite and realize its tasty, things get a lot easier. But its convincing them to take that first bite that is hard.

Don't forget, he's under a lot of stress.. its normal for a puffer to go on a hunger strike when they don't feel good or are stressed out. Just keep up with the clean water and offer some food every 2 days or so (for sure, don't leave uneaten food in there.. it will just rot and make him more uncomfortable).

There's also an article in the library about getting picky puffers to eat, might want to read through that when you get a chance.

ok thanx for the advice i finally got him to eat a bit of prawn today, i wiggled it in front of his nose for a bit and he just went for it hope this is a good sign !

Yeah! Glad he's eating. How's the fungus?

The fungus is a little better put still there. It just seems to be on his tail, i think i might need somthing stronger to get rid of it What else could i try ?

If it's not spreading and getting better I would stay with the melafix. Give it a little more time, it's not good to mix too many medications.

edmlfc1 wrote:If it's not spreading and getting better I would stay with the melafix.

...and Pimafix & get that SG up ASAP!

If you boost the Sg by .002 per week, I doubt the fungus will last long. Most of the time I have seen that exact type of funguslike stuff, it's been on GSP stuck in freshwater too long at stores and clears up in brackish without additional treatment.

ok i will up the salt as quick and safely as i can and hope it works

Good luck!