The Puffer Forum

Dp's go crazy for black worms( you may be able to find at a nearby bait shop now that its spring and blood worms (you can get the frozen cubes at petsmart)

You may want to move her over to a quarantine tank now, the worms may be building up inside her making it harder for her to eat now, so less competition will allow her to eat till full at a slower pace. Another thing you can try is to not feed her for a few days so that she gets hungrier and will be more willing to eat.

More garlic it is, then!

Also remember what I said about a breeding net at food time, she may stress a little at first but once they Sussex they get as much food as they can eat in there they will get excited at the sight of it and swim in willingly.

Yes, I have a net for her, bertie. I've been using it as long as I've been treating her.

My husband was right. She's simply not eating. It's odd. She eyeballs and circles the food as most normal DPs, but then just swims away indifferently after a peck at it.

I've tried bloodworms, blackworms, even snails. I'm up to three cloves of garlic in each soak now, thinking that it's the taste that's turning her off.

I'm just at a loss.

Try her with a little unmedicated food, then you will know if it's her appetite or the taste.

I recall now that my husband said he accidentally gave her a "normal" live blackworm this weekend while I was gone because he forgot about her special food, and he said that she gobbled it right up.

Give the meds a small break, lure her into a false sence of security. After a couple of days add medication again

That's a promising idea. Trick her into thinking that the worms are back to being yummy again!

For such intelligent creatures they are so easily tricked

She is now refusing live foods. I can see that her stomach is definitely becoming more pinched, whereas it didn't seem too terrible when I first got her. It's clear to me now that getting her to ingest meds is going to be a losing battle.

I read the sticky up on the top of this forum about the levamisole hydrochloride, but another internet search is saying that it is no longer available.

If that drug can be absorbed through the gills, why not other drugs? There has to be something that I can dose a small quarantine tank with to get medicine to her gills.

Okay, freaking out... freaking out... freaking out!

I just turned the tank lights on and she is literally doing somersaults and twisting and flipping around in the water and just crazy in general. Then, she'll stop and swim normally for a minute or so. A few moments later and she's back to flipping around.

I'm at a total loss. Zero ammonia, zero nitrites, 10 nitrates...

I couldn't possibly be more discouraged right now. What am I doing wrong? First, the puffer last week with the fungus. Now, I'm not even able to treat some simple IPs, which I had prepared for well before getting my puffers.

My kuhli loaches are happy as could be. My otocinclus are still spawning.

What is wrong here?! I feel like a complete failure!

Should I put her down? I have clove oil in the fish drawer. I got it before I set the tank up, just to have for emergencies. I don't want her to suffer.

I put her down.

I'm still so distraught, but I felt a strange sense of relief as she stopped trying to right herself in the water and simply drifted off to sleep. I couldn't see her like that. I feel like I've failed, but I'm happy that I had the means to put her to rest so that she didn't have to suffer any longer.

I put the container out of sight so that I don't have to watch as her sleep becomes permanent.

Thanks for your help, everyone. I just don't know what I did wrong.

Please don't blame yourself, it's just really bad luck that you've had to deal with 2 problems that were beyond your control. I am so sorry your dp experience has had such a bad start

+1 all to often these fish are so stressed by the time we get them in our care they are open to all sorts of ailments. It's not your fault

Thank you for the kind words, guys. My husband is telling me the same thing, and deep down, I think I know that it's true.

I'm just so upset. I spent five years researching and preparing for these little girls and to have two die right off the bat is just crushing. I'm praying that the three left will be alright, but they were from the same "batch". Who knows if there is something just waiting to happen to them. I can't bear to think about it right now.

I won't be replacing my lost girls, but I may try my hand at a few cherry shrimp. Best case, a little more color in the tank. Worst case, puffer meals.