The Puffer Forum

A little more than a week ago, I made the mistake of putting 10 ghost shrimp in with my smaller GSP. I bought them for food, so I wasn't worried about losing them, but I figured it would take him a long time to get them all because my larger one took 3 weeks to catch and eat as many. Well, the little guy finished them all off in two days. (I would've taken out the shrimp but there are just too many hiding places for them.) Needless to say, his belly was very full for those two days.

The problem now is that this is the fifth day since he finished them, and his belly is still looking like he just had a really good meal - and I've fed him nothing since he ate the shrimp. The bulk of the fullness is back toward the anus. It really doesn't seem to be going down much day by day. The day before yesterday I gave him the prescribed dose of epsom salts and right away he had some good poops, nice and brown, so I know he's not constipated. He was treated for IPs when I first got him, and he's been alone in the tank the whole time (well, except for the ghost shrimp).

Could these be shell fragments that simply need more time to digest? Or is this about normal for a puffer that stuffed himself for two days?

You can always treat him for constipation by adding 1 tbsp epsom salt/5g to his tank.

Even though he pooped, he may still be constipated. Try treating him again with the Epsom salts.

I'd recommend keeping a separate quarantine tank for the shrimp and only adding a couple at a time in the future. This will not only keep him from overindulging in the future, it will also prevent bringing in any disease into your puffer tank. I keep a 20g long for breeding shrimp and snails for this purpose and to always have a supply of both.

OK, I'll go ahead and treat him again, he responded pretty well the first time. And I definitely am with you on keeping the ghost shrimp separate from him, I'll never do that again - I did get some more, but they're in my 10 gallon snail breeding tank now.

let us know how it goes.
there may have still been some good hiding shrimp in there that he found too...

That's what I'm thinking.. he's catching them over time and they're just hiding so you don't see them and think he ate them all right away.

bazil323 wrote: I'd recommend keeping a separate quarantine tank for the shrimp and only adding a couple at a time in the future. This will not only keep him from overindulging in the future, it will also prevent bringing in any disease into your puffer tank. I keep a 20g long for breeding shrimp and snails for this purpose and to always have a supply of both.

It will also give you a better chance to keep them gut-loaded.

Well 10 days after my first posting, nothing's really changed in terms of his belly. I have scoured the tank looking for remaining shrimp he might've been eating, none are there now. He was treated with Epsom salts for 3 days up to yesterday, when I did a 75% water change to give him a break from them because he was starting to look stressed (dark sides). During those three days he pooped often and his stomach got a little smaller. His poo was brown and chunky, except for one time when I saw a small brown chunk hanging on by a rather long white thread, but yesterday he did not poop at all and his stomach is still very full-looking. I'm planning on giving him another treatment of Epsom salts in a couple of days, unless I hear from you all that this would not be the thing to do. He's active, begging for food. Other than possibly treating him again with Epsom salts in a few days, I'm at a loss. I feel so bad because this is all my fault for stupidly putting in all those ghost shrimp at one time.

How long since he ate?

I gave him a tiny mouthful of oyster two days ago because he was begging so much, and then last night I gave him a little bit of mashed pea.

He ate the pea? I'd stick with feedings like you have been then.

Well, not the whole pea, but he ate a fair part of it. Maybe sitting it on a crushed clove of garlic for a while was what helped.

It's been 4 days with no food and his belly is still full, although it has maybe gone down a tiny bit. I added some Epsom salts this morning; this will be the second treatment.