The Puffer Forum

We just trimmed my little puffers teeth, now he doesnt seem to be able to eat. he is REALLY trying to eat, im not sure why he cant? i occasionally do see him with food in his mouth but its not enough and hes getting really thin. any suggestions?

Is there any possibility that you cut his mouth my mistake? Or that they got cut too short?

well when my husband trimmed them, he did the top only, and theres a tiny sore on his bottom, but those teeth wernt touched. i still see them so they dont appear too short, maybe a tad bit slanted. im not sure i dont want him to suffer tho. he is getting really skinny, im going to pick up some bloodworms tomorrow and see if he can eat those fresh because he isnt eating them freeze dried. as long as he gets some food in him ill feel a lot better.

Freeze-dried worms aren't too palatable, of course.

When you get the fresh ones, get some vitamins too. You can replace more of the nutrition he's lost, even if he doesn't eat a lot. Plus, it's a good idea to give them vitamins anyway. I may have to take a special trip out of town to track some down...

Most puffers can eat small earthworms or blackworms even with severe tooth damage.

Yes, something nice and soft. Maybe you could moosh it up a bit if he still has trouble. Good luck. Let us know how it goes.

what vitamins do i get? how do i get him to eat them? ill also look into the earthworms and blackworms, ive never heard of the blackworms.

My DPs love blackworms. My LFS started getting them regularly to feed their stock after I special-requested them and their fish loved them so much. Definitely try those. As for earthworms, be careful that they haven't been exposed to vermiculite (the little white round things you see in some potting soil). This is highly toxic to fish.

(Blackworm care: keep in the fridge. Daily, remove any dead worms; change water every couple of days. You can offer a bit of finely crushed flake food, but it's not needed. They'll live for weeks like this. No need to quarantine.)

As for the vitamins, get a general multivitamin for fish. Gel-Tek makes one that gets good feedback. A liquid vitamin is administered by soaking the food in the vitamin and some tank water. If he refuses to eat, you could add some to the water as he heals from whatever is bothering him - not as effective, but it works, just like an IP medication.

If worst comes to worst, you can force-feed, but he won't suffer lasting damage by starving for a couple of weeks, so I wouldn't freak out yet. Puffers can go for quite some time without food.

ok great im going to ask about black worms tomorrow, i know my lfs carries live fresh bloodworms but im not sure about blackworms, they have never offered those to us, and they know us well and usually suggest things for the puffs ill check tho, just incase. im going to be moving back home soon and i dont think we have any local fish stores there, just the main franchises which are about worthless, so no more live worms ill pick up vitamins too, thanks for your help!!! i hope the little guy will get better, hes REALLY trying to eat so i know hes pretty hungry, poor thing, i feel guilty eating by his tank where he can see me!

Link's not working for me - says that eBay is having a problem or something - but I see "tubifex" in there. I don't know if these are the same as blackworms (seem to remember hearing that somewhere...), but I know that they're good fish food. If you can't get them locally (shipping costs, ugh), then I'd go for it.

i think u have to copy and paste the entire link, when i clicked it, it didnt work for me either. its 1/4 cup of blackworms for $8 and $4 shipping, so $12 for 1/4 cup of them. im going to check my fish store tom, if they dont have them ill order these ones. thanks again!

1/4 cup of California blackworm (tubifex sub) live food

I got the link, but those don't look like the blackworms I fed my fish. California blackworm - never heard of this. Nick? Got an answer for us?

This is what mine look like: http://media.photobucket.com/image/blac ... -clump.jpg

LilGreenPuffer wrote: This is what mine look like: http://media.photobucket.com/image/blac ... -clump.jpg

"Blackworm" (Lumbriculus) are often confused with tubificids (inc. the tubifex worm); here in the UK we compound the problem by referring to black mosquito larvae as 'blackworm'.
Here's a useful article: http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/f ... orms.shtml

Yep, the worms I have definitely have that quick escape reaction mentioned in that article. The Skeptical Aquarist is pretty awesome. Thanks for clearing that up.