The Puffer Forum

Hi. Bought a Striped Burrfish (Chiloycterus Schoepfii) 5 days ago and it hasn't eaten since. I've tried all the recommended foods but still no joy. Has anyone had similar problems and if so how long did it last and how did you get the fish to eat. Thanks.

Burrfish are notorious for not adapting well to aquarium environments (as they are all wild caught). Have you tried live foods like ghost shrimp?

How does the stomach look (sunken, bloated, emaciated)? If it's really sunken/emaciated, it likely has a serious case of Internal Parasites (it likely already has these anyways, even if it's not advanced), and will have to be treated as soon as humanly possible.

I would put it in a cycled QT and use some IP medication (Gel-Tek or Jungle Labs Parasite Clear tablets both work very well). Since the burrfish isn't eating, you'll have to use the method of adding it directly to the tank until the burrfish regains its appetite.

Like I said, it's possible that the burrfish just isn't adapting to the aquarium environment.

Sorry to say, you have a puffer that probably has one of the worst sucess rates to keep alive in captivity. Force-feeding may be necessary. Do a search here on your fish.

Agreed, never, ever, buy a Burrfish that you don't see accepting food in the store. I think 90% of them die in captivity between being loaded with IP's and just not accepting food.

If you can get some live snails (Ramshorns, pond) try those. Or live nightcrawlers.

I get a little worried about the idea of dumping IP meds on these guys when they are already skinny and stressed, they almost always have a huge load of parasties and if you dose them, the parasites all die off and for a fish that's already weakened, it will probably kill the fish.

This is one of the cases that I'd rather see the fish eat and put on a little weight and settle in for a few weeks before blasting it with IP meds.. but if the parasites have a really strong hold, the fish just may never want to eat again.

But try a nightcrawler.. seriously, mine can't resist one.

And if you do get it to eat and survive, be warned they are picky eaters in general. Mine will only eat thawed out raw shrimp, live snails, live nightcrawlers and sometimes thawed out raw scallops (but not always).

Thanks for your help.
Fish still not eating but stomach is very sunken so it seems it's got a parasite problem. Can anyone recommend meds for IPs available over the counter in the UK. Also, if it continues not eating how long would it be expected to live.

With an already sunken stomach? I wouldn't guess very long.

Wait for verification on this, but would it be wise to go with a lower dosage on the IP meds to mitigate the shock to the puffer? I know IPs build up an immunity to the meds, so it's not necessarily wise to do partial doses...

How big is your Burrfish? If its big enough, you can do force-feeding to keep it going while you're applying the IP meds (and would allow you to inject some of the meds directly through the mouth inside the food, instead of dosing the entire tank). Without force-feeding, though, I doubt the Burrfish will pull through. I've never done the force-feeding, though, so take my advice with a grain of salt.

Just my opinion, but I would try a nightcrawler first, just go out and dig one up from the garden (assuming there's no fertilizers/pesticides applied).. if your burr refuses to eat that, I think your only choice will be force-feeding it.

How thin is your burr? This is what mine looked like when I got it and it was still accepting food, but it had such a huge parasite load it was still uber-skinny (actually the photos make it look better than it was):



If its in worse shape than that, I'd say you'll have to play it by ear. If it won't accept a live nightcrawler, then there's probably nothing out there it will accept and you'll have to try to either force feed it (which might be very stressful for both you and the fish, as these are notoriously hyper/neurotic fish) or try dosing it with the internal parasite medications and hope it doesn't kill the fish.. lesser of two evils and without seeing your fish and being able to judge which would be less traumatic/harmful, I can't really tell you which route to take. Ideally, it will eat a bit, you can get some weight on it and a little time for it to settle in, and then you can treat for IP's when its a little stronger.. but if it doesn't eat... As far as full dose vs several smaller doses, in a weak fish that is already pretty far gone I'd probably lean towards doing the smaller doses.. but be careful to be very strict in your quarentine habits and don't share equipment.. you don't want any of those IP's travelling to your other tanks. Then once the fish is a little stronger, you can blast it with a full dose or change medication types to give the IP's something they don't have a resistance to.



Agnate, I am starting to believe there is just something odd about burrfish and parasites. I've given Paris mutiple, full doses of my old fashioned Metro/Levamasole treatment over the last few years, as well as the GelTek Ultra Cure PX (more recently), and every few months she needs a redosing.. she'll start to lose weight and feces get stringy and white again. I think they tend to carry something a bit more complicated than your usual IP's.. something more along the line of Annebelle's story, one of these days I'm going to have to really focus on figuring it out, before they get resistant.

Oh and Tink, my skinny little burr in those photos? This is what she looks like now: