The Puffer Forum

i bought a spiney box puffer on feb.1. he didnt eat when i first got him,which is understandable,
but he still hasnt eaten yet.my tanks been up for almost 2 years now.my other fish are good.
i dont know what to do.HELP ME please

What have you been trying to feed him?

Take a look at the feeding articles:

http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/lib ... r-puffers/

and

http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/lib ... ur-puffer/

Yeah definitely read those articles.
Most burrfish don't adjust to captive life, and are loaded with internal parasites. I'd quarantine him ASAP, and treat him for IP with parziquantel.
If you are feeding him foods as reccomended in the feeding article, try soaking it in garlic. Garlic is a natural stimulant for fish, and will provoke him to eat.

can you get him live river shrimp... ? or live brine shrimp.. just to try and get him interested....

I've yet to find a FW, BW or marine fish that won't go for live river shrimp...

ive tried feeding him frozen krill.ive also soaked some in garlic,he came up to it,but wouldnt eat it.ive tried freeze dried krill also,but had no luck.
hes in with a lion fish,&a grouper,which both eat live food.he wasnt interested in that.
im not sure what to do next.

i forgot,i also tried brine shrimp,he wont eat those,but the grouper does.

Chances are he has IP as most burrs do. You should treat him with praziquantel in a hospital tank.

Have you tried some more, say, pungent foods? Like mussels or clams?
What's the live food you feed your other fish?

Krill really isn't a good staple for puffers, so him not wanting to eat it may not be a bad thing. Keep trying with different things, he's bound to finally break and eat something.

Is he in QT? I hope so or you'll have to treat everyone in there for IPs. Please answer the questions above, in red.

the live food ive been feeding the other fish are,goldfish,and small rosey reds.he still is refusing to eat.were at the point where were going to try force feeding.

Take a look at this.
http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/lib ... y/feeding/

What fish are you feeding the goldfish to?

I don't see any answers. without answering everything above in red, we cannot help you. Burrfish have a bad rep of coming in with severe IPs that need to be dewormed several times. Very poor sucess rate with them in captivity.

Please stop feeding goldfish to your fish. Not only are they poor choice of food for FW fish (see the article in our Library) but they are totally the wrong choice of food for a SW fish. When would a marine fish come actoss a GF to eat? Really bad idea--totally wrong nutrition, even if there were any good nutrition in them...