The Puffer Forum

I had bough a 3" mbu puffer a month ago. It start not eat any thing since last week and now it seem some scrached on one side of its stomechand swim like lost control holicoter.

Please answer the questions in this link: http://www.thepufferforum.org/viewtopic.php?t=5. The information will help us diagnose what might be wrong.

thx for reply; the reading today as follow: amooonia is o ppm, nitrite is o, ph is 7.2

I used to feed my fish twice a day and changed water every week. now it is live with one of my flowerhorn in one side and I have another flowerhorn at the other side with the seperator in the 75g tank.( note; the flowerhorn never show aggression to him).
this tank been set up over few two years.

How much water do you change? What foods are you offering?

I had changed about 1/4 water every week. But I might had over feed them a little. I want to know what is the most common puffer disease? now it doesn't eat any thing for almost a week now so I have to act fast now before it die.

A week without food, is no cause for a fish to die.

What foods are you offering your puffer?

i feeded it frozen fish(smelt) and frozen shrimp.

Could he be malnourished? He needs more variety of food than that?
Pami.

Since he is just a baby, try mussles or cockles without the shell. You could try ghost shrimp too (try holding them in tweezers to help him catch them).

Our mbu is slightly bigger (5inches) and is only now having foods with shells.

I dont know if this will help but good luck and I hope he gets better.

Are you defrosting the foods 1st?

One of the most difficult aspects of keeping these special fish is their diet. All puffers are predatory fish and need hard-shelled, meaty foods to keep their teeth trimmed. Like rabbits, their teeth grow constantly and can overgrow enough to cause starvation in the fish. Puffers eat crustaceans in the wild. Foods for smaller puffers are frozen/freeze-dried krill/plankton, gut-loaded ghost shrimp, glass worms, crickets, worms and small snails (the size of their eye). Snails are an essential food to a puffer’s diet, especially when small. Many serious puffer keepers breed their own snails. As your puffer gets larger, there are many more crunchy foods for them to eat. Larger puffers will eat cut-up pieces of scallops, shrimp, crab legs, whole mussels, clams, oysters, squid, lobster and crayfish. Mine love to chase live crayfish, fiddler crabs and gut-loaded ghost shrimp. I gut-load (pre-feed) my live food with algae wafers, so my puffers get their veggies. I buy most of these foods at the fish department of my grocery store, freeze and later thaw in warm vitamin water as needed. Smaller puffers (under 2�) need to eat every day, skipping one feeding/week. Feed them until their bellies are slightly rounded. Medium sized puffers (2-4�) should be fed every other day. Larger puffers (4-6�) should be fed every 3-4 days.

We currently feed our 5" mbu twice a day. We try to give him as much variety as we can. So far he has had mussel, prawn, ghost shrimp, cockle (which he doesnt like) and also unsuspecting snails.

Its usually a defrosted mussel in the morning and if he hasnt caught any of the shrimp during the day, another defrosted mussel or prawn when we get home from work. We have been relying on the shrimp and snails to keep his teeth tidy.

We tend not to feed him if he has a rounded belly as he has probably caught a shrimp or a snail without us knowing.

This weekend we are going to give him his first cricket and his first mussel in a shell (cracked obviously) As I said, we are always trying something new.

I'm fairly certain he is not overfed. (we made that mistake when we got him, mainly thanks to the LFS) He is always active except at bedtime (about 8pm most nights)

Basically, after reading Pufferpunks advice, I'm now unsure as to whether we are feeding him too often. As much as it kills me to ignore his feed me dance, I dont want to kill him with kindness.

What do you reckon?

oh men! still can't find the solution yet. He probaly not make it too long. One of his side had hole or wound on. I think he really bacteria infection. any idea how to treat it?

Are you certain its a bacterial infection? If so, Have you read the sticky on melafix? That might help.

We live in the UK and have limited access to antibiotics but somebody in another country, i.e the states may know the best antibiotics to use.

I'm afraid I'm no expert but there are plenty of people on this forum who are. Can you try to post a picture or maybe you could describe the wound in detail. It might help with the diagnosis.

Sorry I cant be of more help.

thx boomer! I will tried to post the pix tonight. now I can describe the wound if i can. He started no eating any thing last week, and I notied the there is white spot on one of his side which behine one of his fin. But the whit spot started to rot and then became a hole now.

Can you get him in his own (quarantine tank)? Definately treat w/Melafix & Pimafix. I'd also add 1 tbsp salt/5gal, to his tank. It you can quarantine him, that would be best. How are the other fish?

Where are you?