The Puffer Forum

I recently bought two dwarf puffers. One is eating like a pig and the other does not want to eat at all. I have tried frozen bloodworms, freeze-dried brine shrimp and also snails. I have also tried soaking the food in garlic juice for fish and they both do not seem to like it. I really do not want to give him live food if possible. Is there anything else i can try?

How long has the tank been setup, and how big is it?

If it is relatively new, there might be some ammonia and nitrites which are making him feel not so good. Make sure you are doing water changes (taking out old, dirty water and replacing it with clean) at least once a week.

Dwarf puffers can be really picky eaters.. is there anything in the tank that he could be eating, shrimp or snails? If there's something else in there he likes, he may be stubborn and turn his nose up at your non-live food.

What I would do, is not feed them for 2 days.. then offer some frozen bloodworms (thawed of course). See if he goes for that.

In the mean time, how skinny is he? Horribly bad or not at all? Sometimes if they have IP's really bad they just stop eating and don't start again, but I'm willing to bet its more likely that he's just finding other "good" food somewhere in the tank and isn't hungry enough to try what are offering.

In the past when I had dwarf puffers, the only food they'd eat that I offered was live blackworms or New Life Spectrum Small Fish Formula (a very tiny pellet). Otherwise, they'd turn their nose up at regular foods and go hunt down their own.

The tank has been set up for about 3 months. It is a 5 gallon tank. The puffer that is not eating is very skinny and smaller than the other one. He was skinny when i bought him. I just did a water change yesterday and have had these puffers for about a week. Everytime i put food into the tank he goes after it and then does not want it but he appears to be very hungry bc he is always at the front of the tank. I have tried to separate the two puffers but he still would not eat the frozen food.

The ammonia, nitrites, nitrate and ph are all good.

Hi Puffer87! Sadly, five gallons is too small for a pair of puffers. You should have about 5 gallons per fish, as they are super messy animals. You said your parameters are good, but what are the exact numbers? Also, if you are using strip tests, you may not be getting the proper readings. API freshwater liquid master test is the best one to go for. It could be that there are ammonia readings that you aren't picking up and this is causing distress in your skinnier puffer. You said you didn't want to feed live food, but it might be worth a try to see if he will respond to blackworms or snails if he takes them then maybe he's just a picky puffer. If he doesn't take them, maybe it's something else.DPs do take some time to get used to their surroundings, so maybe he just doesn't feel at home yet. Hope that helps.

nitrites are 0, ph is 7.2, ammonia is 0. I use liquid water tests for everything except ammonia but did a 50% water change yesterday as well as put the aquasafe drops and ammonia drops in the water before adding it to the tank.

The ammonia test is the most important one of all, so IMO you should get a liquid test right away. What is your Nitrate reading? Have you tried wiggling the bloodworms to make them look alive?

What kind of "ammonia drops" are you using?

A 5 gallon tank is really too small for two dwarf puffers, but if they are still young and you really keep up on the water changes you'll get away with it for a little while. These are very territorial fish though, and that doesn't give them a lot of room to get away from each other, especially if you end up with two males.

What products are you using, exactly? Some can actually cause more trouble than help.

If the one is very skinny, you might be better off separating the two.. it might be intimidated by the other. Deworming might be a good idea, but if you can't get him to eat, getting the medication into him will be harder.

i'd give it a few more days of doing daily water changes, see if that perks him up. If not, you can start to consider separation/medication type of ideas.

Make sure there's lots of decorations so he can get away from the other one, and feel more secure too!