The Puffer Forum

Good luck with BeeBoo and let us know how he's doing.

If she's eating anything at all--even snails--it's not time to freak out just yet...

Congratz again on your new puff Suzanne!

Being worried is never a bad thing, at least you've noticed there may be a problem, and worrying too soon is always better than worrying too late!!

I know how it feels when your puffer isn't acting 100%, it is great BeeBoo is eating snails though!

Fingers are still crossed for Orangey.. hopefully s/he is still just settling in!

Pufferpunk wrote:If she's eating anything at all--even snails--it's not time to freak out just yet...

No, you're right and really, I was commenting on BeeBoo today, the belly doesn't look too bad, not like a "sick" puffer, so I'm now wondering if he wasn't constipated because yesterday and now today, he's having normal brown poo, not the stringy white stuff. And he actually ate one very small piece of shrimp earlier, I just put it in to see what would happen, and he ate it! But when I put more in, he ignored it. So I'm not freaking yet ... just very concerned. Why is it that the expensive puffers are the ones we have the most trouble with??

As to Orangey .... well not sure what to think about that one. He came out of the sand earlier when I was doing a water change on the tank next to his. And I watched him. I've got 6 live fish in there, and he doesn't seem interested in them at all. So then I went and got a mussel and held it with my long tongs, and put it in front of him, and again, he wasn't interested. So I've put a small piece of shrimp in there too, and I will leave it until tomorrow morning because the girl at the shop said he was eating at night, so I will still hold out for that to happen. The husband didn't get up early enough today to check around for bait shops, but that's definitely on the list for tomorrow. I need to get some food into this Congo because he's too pretty to lose, besides the fact that I just don't want to lose ANY puffer if I can help it.

Thanks Lisa -- Yeah, real excited about getting the new Palembang. I just hope everything has gone well today, it was due to arrive at the LFS this evening ... so fingers crossed that all is well. I will go over there tomorrow unless I get a phone call, which will not be good news, but hopefully it will go as planned and I will come home with another humpback. They are interesting puffers, their eyes are so large compared to most other puffers their size.

^^^Just curious -- if push comes to shove, and I need to get some medication into BeeBoo, should I try soaking the snails in the meds? Also, I received the praziquantel today ..... should I try giving the meds orally or would it be better to do a bath soak? That other medication, metronidazole SHOULD arrive tomorrow, as it was posted yesterday ... so if that comes, I will have to decide what to do with that as well. Any suggestions from anyone?? >>>

I really don't know how you should dose BeeBoo, soaking the snails seems to me like the best idea.

How are things going?? Have you received the meds??

Hi Lisa,

Well I'm not sure of anything .... been a bit of a depressing day to be honest.

Yes, I've got both meds finally ... but both of them say to put the medication in the water, and I'm hesitant to do that because I've got some rare expensive snails in this tank, as well as a lovely aquatic crab, and I'd hate to kill them. I started another thread in the hospital section entitled 'Praziquantel & Metronidazole ....' hoping that someone could shed light on what I should do.

BeeBoo has spent most of the day, uncharacteristically, at the other end of the tank. He only came back down to his favourite end when I vacuumed the tank a little while ago. He totally ignored the food I put in the tank, I even soaked it in garlic juice. I also bought some live bloodworms and brine shrimp today to see if I could get him excited with those, as most puffers enjoy live food ... but he didn't seem at all interested in any of it. So that upset me a little, and then when I was vacuuming, I sucked up a long pinkish poo that was similar to "pearls", but more clumpy than stringy like he had previously. I thought he was getting better when he had those 2 days of having brown poo. The weird part is that his mood is good tonight, and his colouring is a little better. His tummy still isn't sucked in looking and really, other than his colouring being off and him not eating, he doesn't resemble a sick puffer. So I suppose that's a good thing.

On a different note -- I went to the LFS today and found out that the Palembang that I was to be getting arrived at the store totally dead!!! My friend said it was hard as a rock, which means it had been dead for a while. So looks like that's out now. He won't be getting any more new fish until after the new year, so I won't be getting a new Palembang any time soon, not at that price anyway. I should have known it was too good to be true!!! He said next time that he won't bother telling me beforehand, he will wait until he's actually got a live puffer at the store before he will phone me. He's also going to look into seeing if an importer friend of his can get ahold of a schoutedeni puffer (that would be my dream come true!!).

Well that's too bad about the Palembang!


Maybe just to ease your mind, Kaleeko poo is always a pink-ish colour, I think it's because of all the Krill he eats though.. lol

Thanks Lisa, I'm just not sure what to think anymore ..... seems that things go really well for me and my puffers, and then I have all sorts of things happening at the same time.

These issues with IP's have me well and truly confused. I guess that's all part of being a puffer owner, the good and the bad. I'd like a bit more of the good and alot less of the bad though!

You should absolutely soak the food he's eating (snails)n in the meds. It will kill them though but I doubt he'll know thew difference. As far as Orangy, loosely tie a thread around the end of a shrimp tail & place it so the filter stream will bang it around, making it look alive.

pufferpuggirl wrote:Thanks Lisa, I'm just not sure what to think anymore ..... seems that things go really well for me and my puffers, and then I have all sorts of things happening at the same time.

These issues with IP's have me well and truly confused. I guess that's all part of being a puffer owner, the good and the bad. I'd like a bit more of the good and alot less of the bad though!

Well my fingers are crossed that you will not have anything go wrong!!
I can also see why you're getting confused! There is so many things/diseases fish can get that you wouldn't even think of..and so many ways to treat it!

But since you are the keeper of the Puffer Home I'm sure you're doing great!!

How about tying shrimp to fishing line but with the rod and reel attached?! He wouldn't know it was you across the room... If I ever have this very distressing situation with a lionfish or (dare I suggest it) a lurker puffer one day I'd probably try that! One for facebook or whatever...

My two had had a starve day on tues so they were really hungry last night. They eat so quickly it's a wonder they don't suffer from indigestion. Maybe they do These puffers seem to eat what they want to and then stop. Still doing the water changes/high temp/salt, spot free at mo but that still means nothing.

Chin up - you're doing a fantastic job. Many people would just think 'looks ok, do nothing' but not you

Thank you all for your very kind comments, it means alot to me. I shall trudge on because I have to, I cannot give up because little puffers depend on me.

PufferPunk -- I still have one or two of the Jungle fizz tabs (from an order to America) ..... would it be better for me to find them and give BeeBoo some of that? And if so, how much should I break off to make a snail paste with ? (I just mean to put some water in with the fizz tab and to make it pasty and smear on the snails, not to make a paste out of the snails).

Another Update -- Well I finally got the earthworms today, funny how some puffers will eat them right up and others just look at it like "why did you put that in my tank?"
BeeBoo absolutely loved the earthworms and ate quite a few of them. Even my salivator came out to get some of the earthworm, and the F8's got right in there to get their share. It was all very entertaining to watch. The Ceylons went crazy over the worms, and Yorkie just pulled the worm right out of Pudgie's mouth and ate it up as quick as he could. They were looking for more even.
Both Abei's couldn't be bothered with the earthworms, neither could my turgidus puffer. The one Cutcutia seemed to enjoy the worm, but I think he preferred his normal meal better.
The GSP's ate the worm, but I don't think they were all that enthusiastic about it.
My mudskippers were VERY interested in the worms, even the dwarf mudskippers were loving them.
HOWEVER -- the one puffer that I especially got the earthworms for -- My Congo puffer, Orangey, he wasn't interested in the worms in the least! In fact, he turned away from them and pointed himself in the other direction. I also tried my smaller Congo, Biscuit, but she wasn't fazed by it either. So I removed the worms from their tanks. My Palembang wasn't interested either. So it's looking as if the lurkers just don't like earthworms, but the other puffers did like them very much. So I will be getting a bigger container next time.
So now I know that I can medicate the earthworms and feed them to BeeBoo .... but I'm out of luck with Orangey, although having said that I do believe that Orangey has eaten another Endler, one of the females that are in there, so that's a good thing. I would just feel better if I knew Orangey was eating more and could see his belly abit more rounded off, then I would not worry.

So that's the report for today.

Sounds pretty good Suzanne! Glad to hear BeeBoo ate some worms!

Have you tried the tying a string to the shrimp for Orangey? If not update on how it goes!

To be honest Lisa, if Orangey ignored those wiggling earthworms, I really can't see him going after a dead shrimp. Seriously, the earthworm wiggled right in front of Orangey, and he just turned in the opposite direction. But, as long as he's eating the Endlers, that's food in his tummy and that is better than nothing. I will try the shrimp, just to make sure I've tried everything, but I don't hold out any hopes of it working.