The Puffer Forum

Hi everybody, I am new to this forum and I have had my puffer for a week. It was sold to me as a "green topaz " and after serching the net it also looks like a ceylon puffer. He is about 4.5 inches long . I am keeping him in a 32" tank (96 litres) with just one little albino pleco. The filter was well mature as the tank had been running for a few years. Water parameters are: PH 7.8, Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrates 5.0ppm. I havent added any salt yet as the fish was kept in freshwater in the shop. I am planning to keep him in brackish water in future and could do with some advice on that as well. I have tried to feed mussells, prawns ( with and without shell) and live river shrimps but he hasn't eat anything yet. I suspected some form of bacterial infection so I treated the tank with Octozin( from Waterlife) and also with Melafix ( from API). The fish himself looks better than he did in the first couples of days but still not eating. Any advice? Many thanks.

well first off i would start switching to brakish as soon as you can, just raise the salinity by .002 a week using marine salt, and the cycle will hold on the tank.

which means getting rid of or moving the albino pleco.

second just keep trying different foods (ask what the fish store was feeding it) i would suggest bloodworms, or earthworms.

also the cyelon puffers do require a 40 gallon tank in the long run.

but dont worry to much about the eating, just make sure you remove any uneatin food and keep trying, if he doesnt eat in a couple days after being in your tank you might look into treating for internal parasites, im not sure which meds are the best but make sure its a med that you have to soak the food in, and not on that just goes in the water. (if you decide to treat for IP)

Thanks for the advice Cobra.
I can easily move the albino pleco as i a few other tanks.
In the fish store they were feeding him on live river shrimps. There are a couple of river shrimps in the tank at the moment swimming well under his nose but he does not try to eat them.

I will do a water change tomorrow and begin to increase the salinity as you suggested. The tank is 96 liters or 20 gallons ( 25US gallons). How much salt do you think I need to add in order to increase by .002? Do I dissolve the salt in a buckett first or straight in the tank? Is it best to add the salt to RO water?

Sorry for asking so many questions. Many thanks.

No reason to bother with RO water for brackish. You'll want to use about 2/3 cup of salt in the change water, pre-dissolved in the bucket. Make sure you have the marine salt mixed used for SW or reef tanks, not aquarium salt or other "tonic salts."

Thank you Nick. I've bought some marine salt and an idrometer today. I didn't know marine salt was so expensive.

What kind did you buy? Get the cheapest--usually what's on sale will do.

I 've done a water change this evening and raised the salinity to about 1004 ( I was aiming at 1002). The good news is that shortly after the WC he ate a whole mussel and a chunk of prawn! Thanks everybody for helping.

There ya go!

One more question. I am feeding one cooked mussel just once a day. Is this apprpriate? Is it enough?

Cooking removes many of the nutrients - just crack the shell and feed raw (thawed if you've had it frozen).

Does his tummy look nice and round after feeding?

Yes, it does actually. When you say raw mussel do you mean live mussel? I haven't seen raw frozen mussels in shops. Where do you buy yours?

I buy mine at supermarkets or from fishmongers. Bring them home (live or in pre-packaged net bags), sort through them and throw away any that are already open, and then put them in the freezer. Leave them for a few days to kill off the nasties and then take them out individually to feed. I thaw in vitamin water.

Thank you bonsai girl, nice tip. I will try that. What kind of vitamins?

I use Aquamedic Aquabiovit, but there are probably many others in use by people on here