The Puffer Forum

Hi,

I'm a bit worried about Mitch my Abei, he is refusing to eat and has missed his last 2 feeds.

I fed him snails for the first time on saturday (only one or two small ones) after feeding them on cucumber for a little bit, he ate some raw tiger prawn on monday as usual and then refused to eat on wednesday (bloodworm). I changed the light on wednesday for a t5 unit (aquarium is a juwel rio125)

I tried feeding him a mussle yesterday and again he refused, today I tried a some tiger prawn (his favourite) and again he refused.

My water parameters are as they have always been (0 nitrite, <10 nitrate, ph 7.6, hard water), I'm a bit worried the snails have given him something

Other than not eating he seems to be acting normal, his belly is still white too and his colours are the same.

Am I just being paranoid, or is something wrong? (and if so what???)

Thanks in advance

So, he stopped eating after you changed lighting? What did you change from? The lights may take him a little while to get used to.

He refused his first meal on Weds morning, I changed the lights weds pm. The lights aren't a huge change - gone from two 20W T8 aquaglo to two 28W T5 (one juwel color tube and one juwel daylight tube)

I agree it's also probably the light change that did it. My Abei is *extremely* moody and won't take food if I do something to make him grumpy. A couple weeks ago, I cleaned the algae off his wall (with the mag float thing) before feeding him, and he basically refused to eat that night because I had made him angry (he doesn't like when I clean the glass).

Keep an eye on his belly to make sure it doesn't get too sunken, and try soaking a piece of food in garlic before you give it to him. Keep us posted on progress.

How long have you had him and how big is he?

Hmmph, I was thinking shyness with the upgrade in light but since he started doing this before the light change, I don't know. I'll leave this up to the experts.

Sorry, I didn't see your last post until I hit send.

If it happened BEFORE you put in the lights and did stuff with the tank, than it's possible he picked up some Internal Parasites, depending on how long you've had him and whatnot.

Is his stomach sunken, and do you see white stringy feces? Pictures might be helpful for a first-look analysis.

I've had him about a month and a half so only just getting to know him really, I've not found him to be grumpy although he does get really annoyed when it's time to do water changes (tends to attack the siphon if he's feeling like it)

He's fully grown (I really should get some photos up )

I soak his food in seachem nourish normally, I'll put some garlic in there too

His faeces is normal (orangey ) and his anus is closed as normal.

His stomach isn't sunken, nice and flat like normal at the moment

I took some quick snaps, they're on my phone so the quality is pretty bad I'm afraid He didn't eat this morning (prawn soaked in garlic & vitamins) - I'll try again tonight.

I'm preparing for the worst, IP treatments don't seem to be easy to get in the UK (gel-tek seems to be a US only thing) the hospital library mentions Droncit, is http://www.vetuk.co.uk/index.php?main_p ... rrency=GBP that the stuff (or is this liquid form more suitable http://www.vetuk.co.uk/index.php?main_p ... ucts_id=94)

How would I feed this to my fish? If there are any alternatives please let me know, I'm quite worried now

Well, he still seems pretty healthy and plump. To be honest, if it was a problem with IPs, I would assume that he'd be a lot more emaciated (sunken stomach) and generally inactive.

His stomach looks a bit swollen almost, but my Abei has a similar look, so I'm not quite sure. To be honest, I'm not really sure what could be causing this. If you've seen feces, then it can't really be constipation, I don't think.

Maybe just try adding in some Epsom salt, just in case. I believe it's 1 tbsp per 5 gallons, but do a search through the hospital forums for the proper amount.

Hopefully it's just something minor, because I'm not really sure what it is.

He ate this morning

I've really no idea why he refused to eat now, hopefully he'll be back to normal - I'll get some epsom salt just in case though

If ever needed in the future, Wormer Plus is pretty good stuff, and available in the UK.

Thanks for the info , I'd seen that and but it seemed discus specific

Can this stuff be used without treating the entire tank (ie. can food be soaked in it?) (the directions show to treat the water)

It can be mixed with food, but it does seem to work really well in the water relative to most IP meds - discus tend to stop eating when they have worm issues that get far along, much like puffers. It's target marketed at discus, but the instructions say it's effective for all tropical and pond fish. It's simply a flubendazole treatment with some calcium and other buffers to keep it from altering PH, processed to reduce flubendazole's hydrophobic properties. I like the product almost as much as it's predecessor, Flubenol-15.