The Puffer Forum

Hey everyone,

My porcupine puffer has recently been behaving funny, and I'm wondering if it's because of the quarantining and untimely death of his only tank mate. Since I quarantined his friend (a GSP that has been living with him for 2 years), my porc (named Phil) has been sulking in a corner and will barely eat. He won't touch his favorite food (shrimp) and I can't get him to eat anything else other than a handful of frozen peas that he ate yesterday. Is he depressed??

The tank has been set up for over two years, and ammonia, nitrates, and nitrites are at 0. I've even had my water parameters checked out at my LFS just to make sure. I have been having some weird fluctuations with the pH though (seems to drop from ~8.4 to 7.8 daily and I've been constantly having to add pH buffer to get it back up). I recently added Melafix and Maracyn Plus to the tank but have done two large water changes since. Any thoughts? The tank is 75 gallons and Phil is now the only inhabitant. Any thoughts would greatly be appreciated.

Thanks,

Dan

No thoughts? He's still not eating and I can't figure out what to do.

Dan

I can't be sure if the dead tankmate might be the problem or not, but it could definately have something to do with long term health risks due to the tank size - 75 gallons isn't nearly big enough to hold a porcupine puffer and a GSP together for two years. What was his diet consisted of, other than peas?

His diet mostly consists of frozen shrimp, formula one and two, freeze-dried krill (occasionally), and the ever popular snails that I'd get from my LFS. I occasionally will grab something different from the seafood department at my local grocery store (li.e, scallops, crab, clams, mussels - he's tried them all), but shrimp is his usual favorite.

The problem started from the time I removed the GSP, and the porcupine puffer has literally been sulking in a corner since. I've been checking the water parameters daily and they're still reading the same (0 across the board) and the pH problem seems to have finally worked itself out. Other than the peas he at a few days back, he has been ignoring everything else I put in the tank.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Dan

His diet sounds good - what ailed the GSP, I don't remember atm.