The Puffer Forum

syringe.... alright. I'll go hunting for that. Maybe I'll try the garlic oil first.

He does try to nip shrimp. but hasn't succeeded yet. Thanks...

Ok I fed him some minced bloodworms with vitamins via a syringe. I think some food got into him/her at least. Let's hope that it will start eating on its own....

did you put the syringe in far enough to get it in her belly?

urm... no. But I think it swallowed the food. The syringe does not have a needle attached... and I don't think I can get hold of a needle here, or a long enough syringe to reach the tummy.

No needle required. The tip of the syringe just needs to extend enough to make sure that the food is swallowed. For small fish, a regular syringe should work just fine. For force-feeding larger fish, you can purchase syringes with longer tips at hobby stores or add a small section of very thin tubing to the end of the syringe.

Hopefully the one force-feeding will do the trick and your friend will be eating on his own within a day or so.

I was wondering how on earth I was going to get anything (other than a needle) to reach the tummy. Lol... ok. Yeah, the mouth of the syringe was long enough for it to swallow.

It's still chasing shrimp now, haven't caught any. Hopefully after time it will start eating normally. I'm amazed at its energy level though. It chases shrimp perpetually around the clock!

How about other foods that it might be interested in but doesn't have to chase, maybe bloodworms or krill?

I've tried everything under the earth that I can lay my hands on... nope doesn't work. It even ignores crippled shrimp. Dead shrimp, bloodworms (both live and frozen), prawn meat... etc. Ignores them all.

A cannula is very handy for tube feeding. Basically, it is a very small, very flexible extension for a syringe. The only place I know of that carries them is http://www.aquabiotics.net/cannulas.html (It looks like a needle on the website's photo but it is not).

Ok latest update. I tried brine shrimp on the puff... as a last resort. I know they don't have high nutrition value etc, but well, better than it not eating right? The previous time I tried brine shrimp it ignored it totally. Today, it was making an attempt to catch some and ate some. It was totally awesome to see it EAT!!

I've come to the conclusion that... it needs its foods to be alive, i.e. swimming and kicking. Good luck to me if that's the case. I must start thinking of how to train it to eat frozen foods. It's still ignoring snails though... Thanks for all the help thus far!

That's such good news. I'd keep any 'training' on other foods until he's way fatter! Odd that it ignores snails, though.

Woo hoo! Puffy is eating fairly normally now. He even attempted to bite into some bloodworms by itself (which is a miracle considering he wouldn't touch any for a month). I see hope in the sky. May it start to eat snails as well.

Thanks for all the help! You guys rock!

Yippee! :34:

that rocks!! Good job.

I just read your story and i glad for your SA and for you. I hope he gets back to his normal size and bigger