The Puffer Forum

ph - 8.2
ammonia - 0
nitrite - 0
nitrate - 20
sg 1.005
temp 78f
weekly %50 wc's

just did a %50 wc couple of hours ago

2 - F8's
3 - BBG's
20g tank

Feed twice a day their diet consists of bloodworms, clam,krill, baby ramshorn snails.



Have had the puffers for little over a month now the tank itself has been running for over a year. I did the sg raise very slowly over a 3 week period. Everything has been totally fine until tonight. This a.m. I fed them a couple of little pieces of krill and they happily gobbled them up, this evening I first tried a clam and they completely ignored it which is totally unusual for them. Then I tested the water and saw the nitrates were around 30ppm so I promptly did a wc then about an hour after than tried feeding them some bloodworms and again they completly ignored them but the BBG's seem fine and they are eating no problem. Another thing that I noticed is their behavior changed today too as they are not greeting me when I come to the tank and they are just pacing up and down the glass. Bellies look normal, nice and white and not bloated whatsoever so I don't think it is constapation

Help would be greatly appreciated here, I think it might be the nitrates but I had just done a %50 wc last Friday.
Also should I maybe just only be feeding once a day, with a one day fast a week?

just rechecked the nitrates after the wc I did earlier and now the nitrates are down to 10ppm oh and BTW I use the API test kit

hmm, not sure what could be wrong TD. Maybe they lost their appetite because of the nitrates. Or they could just be full shouldn't worry too much if they feel like skipping a meal every once in a while. Are you doing 6 days feeding, 1 day skip?

They should only be fed once a day. Overfeeding is not healthy.

I am gonna go to only once a day and only 6 days a weeks and see what happens