The Puffer Forum

we've had our leopard puffer fish for 2 days, they wont eat blood worm or cockles in sheels (even when u break open), try leaving it, tryed puttin on abit of string and there not interested. They somethings go alittle black on the belly, but then suddenly are fine and go all lovely and white again, swimming fine, no other signs of distress.
These fish are freshwater and the guy that raised them wouldnt just let them go to anyone and we had to bring to water samples in for him to test them, when he did all the test he was really happy with it and happy for us to have them.

PH- 6.5 more to 7.5 (Orangey yellow)
Ammonia- 0.1
Nitrite-0

Tank size-26.3

nothing else living in tank just two puffers that have been raised together

No water changes yet as only had two days, have used safe water(when first got tank)- added 10ml of stress zyme(when 1st got fish) then 5ml next day as told to do so by shop owner.

Today the only change we have made to tank is put a new little house in as we were told they get bored very easily and need some where to hide. they seemed much happy with that there, but still no eating.

We had the tank set up for a 8days before we got fish.

I've just looked through the cycle info and we did pretty much the same, but we didnt do it for 10days and we didnt add safe water -every day only the day we added the water.
we also added 2 plants
it was being filtered on high
the temp was between 26-27
we also added gravel ornaments and decorations, that were all washed with water and left to release any gases then added.

are their bellies sunk in?
its normal for them to change color. its not normal for their bellies to stay dark though. sometimes when they go dark its anything from being tired, to stress, to being scared...or sometimes just cause. my puffer didnt eat anything for about 3 days because of the new enviroment. they are very sensitive fish so it can take awhile not to mention they can be picky eaters.
are they breathing really fast or really slow? how does their bodies look besides the change of color? are they swimming a lot or are they resting a lot? (some puffers arnt very active some are)

Stresszyme does not cycle the tank. If you are in the US, see if you can find Bio-Spira (only that product, nothing else works) & add it to your filter. Is that 26 gallons? Read the GSP article in our library.

hi thanks for getting back to me, there bellys are not sunk and they seem ok other than the black which has gone again now....... they swim around happy enough resting on the bottom or in a plant then they go on another mish about, which seems normal, there very bright coloured which i was told is good. its just the eating that is worrying me, they seem to perfer the light off in the tank they swim a little slower and dont go black at all so i have left it off for now but am a little worried as to much dark isnt good for them ither.

yah i know how u feel. like i said mine did that too for a few days. hes still real shy...its hard to say because puffers have huge personalities. its a good sign that their bellies arnt sunk in. mine didnt eat for about 3 days. id keep the light on because the only way they would get use to it is by having it on...thats just me though. i put a towel over my tank the first day to give my puffer privcy because it wasnt the tank that stressed him it was any movement around the tank. maybe try that????

worth a shot, if they dont eat by 2moro i think i might try live bate, like gut loaded ghost shrimp, his swiming round that cockle still just circleing it but not attempting to eat....
they both have strong little personalites one is a bit mental and the other is pretty chilled just hope they are ok i would feel so bad if they did get ill.

my 2 dwarf puffers wont eat anything that wont move. so i have to put it in the waters current and make sure they are watching in order to feed them. my GSP circles his food to almost like he cant quite get it. i got him a feeding clip. its attached to a suction cup and u stick it on the side of the tank. only way he will eat. just watch them closely. i also noticed my puffer wouldnt eat if i was in the room...hes now slowly geting use to me being there. i was acutally able to feed him by hand lastnight.

Thats so nice, well i will keep checking on here and updating when they do hopefully eat, and i will look into the sucker feeder thingy i think he would like that. thanks for the info every little helps as they are my first puffers. reading up on them helps but the amount of conflicting info is a little confusing (not from you just on the web in general).

i completly no what u mean. thats why i joined this forum. everyone here is real smart on knowing whats good and what isnt. im just learning from my puffer fish and here. some things are general and some things are specifics. every puffer is differnt. its hard however its how we all get better at this.

If your test kits are reading any amount of ammonia then the tank is not cycled. I would suggest large daily water changes (50% or more) until you're reading 0 ammonia every day for at least a week.

Are you sure this is a freshwater fish and not something that belongs in brackish water? My guess is that you have a green spotted puffer (GSP), they belong in brackish water. As Pufferpunk said, there is an article on them in the library.

hiya, im avids girfriend, i'm sat at home now and they both had black bellys, so i put the light on and they seem much happier. but one of them has gone really dull in colour on the top. the other one looks fine and he was swimming around, but now they are both sat on the bottom. but im more worried about the one that has gone really dull. not sure what to do he doesnt look happy.
oh and we have both read that young puffers like to live in freshwater, but as they get older they like BW so we have already decided that we are gona changed the water with one of those proper kits when they get alittle older. but still doesnt help the fact they wont eat, i think were gona try live snails.

this sounds completely normal settling in behaviour to me. Around a month or so ago your puffers where happily swimming free in their natural habitat and now they are with you. They have been cought, handled, shipped, held,ordered and transported, thrown in a tank too small for them at a store that generally has very little knowledge how to look after them and then you come along, they get netted, transported and then dumped in an extremely alien environment. I thik that I would be off my food if this happenned to me too. Your main problem is the eventual tank size and the eventual need for SW environment. The fact that your tank has some ammonia means it is not cycled fully or is struggling with the bioload of the puffers, they produce waste when breathing not just pooping So the fact they aren't feeding is good in a way as this would only stress the filter even more. I would try to monitor the ammonia levels as this is will be fatal to the fish before they starve to death. Keep water changes going and buy some Seachem Prime to treat the tapwater, any more probs you know where we are

yah they are messy buggers. i have to change the water about 50% or more sometimes.

ok there has been a new development, they have been fine all night, happier than ever swimming around and got there color back, but then one of them, his belly sunk in! but its come back out again. is this just a puffer doing this out of choice or is this a diease? they dont have clowdy eyes like i was reading about?

its not sunk in anymore?
have you tried feeding them today?

when u try to feed them to they see the food drop into the tank? none of mine will go for it unless they see it fall in