The Puffer Forum

ph: 8.2
ammonia: 0ppm
nitrite: 0ppm
nitrate: 15ppm
sg: 1.008
temp is at 80°F

tanks size is 29 gallon. spot, my gsp, is the only inhabitant

i feed 6 days and skip one. we skipped yesterday. change water on sundays. i use prime as dechlorinator and petco brand marine salt.

the only change ive made to the tank in the last week was bringing up the salinity from 1.006 to 1.008. the biggest change was for over a week (starting the weekend before 4th of july) ive had the flu, so its been my boyfriend feeding him.

the tank has been set up for over a month now. it is cycled (it cycled when we got spot unfortunately, but it has been stable for over 4 weeks now).

its really strange. the last three days he hasnt really touched his food and he looks very slender. not hollowed out, but slender. his color is great, bright white belly and pale green on his back; spots are nice and dark. his eyes are not sunken in. he goes after snails with a vengence, but suddenly wont touch market shrimp, brine shrimp or blood worms. he eats a couple and then ignores the rest.

when do i need to start panicking?

when you see stringy feces or when he gets indented rather than streamlined.

his poops have been brown and fat still

hes always been a little chubby so this is creepy. his now deceased tank mate ate a lot less before he/she died. but the behavior is not the same. the other puffer stopped being active and had a dark belly most of the time. spot is very active in the evenings with a nice bright white belly.

when Shakespeare lived alone, after a certain period he stopped eating quite so much. He never got inactive or dark bellied, and ate way more once he had a tankmate again.

ok. as long as hes eating and not showing stress coloration, dont panic right?

well, i figured out the problem...

while i was sick my boyfriend was feeding spot at about 9pm. he got used to the later time frame and i was trying to feed him between 5-6pm. when i waited til the later time, he ate like a pig.

silly puffer. doesnt he know hes supposed to be a complete glutton?

I would panick if my fish didn't eat. Hell that goes for any of my pets. Glad your puff is ok .

yeah no kidding. i DO panic if he doesnt eat. he seems to be doing quite alright now. not so slender any more.