The Puffer Forum

I got a new porcupine puffer about 3 days ago, hes about 2-3 inches long and very active, i cant get him/her to eat anything though. All it does is swim up and down one side of the glass, my water is in good condition no ammonia no nitrite, about 10 ppm nitrate and is 75 gallons until the porcupine gets bigger? ive tried PE mysis, kril, brine shrimp, mussles, shrimp, ive seen him grab some shrimp but just spits it out! Im pretty sure he sees a reflection of himself and thinks its another puffer, do they ever quit this or just always do it?

Its unlikely he sees himself. Most puffs I have gotten thus far do the same thing for a while. Its likely stress from the change. He needs time to settle in. I have had puffs not eat for the first two weeks. Dont get too worried yet. Give him some time to get to know his new surroundings.

Try some live food, its better for him to eat a gut packed gold fish or ghost shrimp than nothing.

As Jose says, it's normal for a puffer to be stressed out after moving. Many puffers do this window surfing you experience. Give him a few more days to settle in. But if the window surfing continues for a longer time, there's something stressing him, or he is bored.

It's also normal for a puffer to refuse to eat for the first days after moving. But it's something you need to keep your eye on. Some puffers find it difficult to understand that dead food is really food. They are wild caught, and are not used to dead food. If that's the case, you need to teach them that food can be tasty, even if it's not alive. A shrimp in a thread often does the trick. Or, I've never experienced them taking it with me holding the other end of the thread. The trick is to hang the shrimp by the outlet of the filter, or anything else that makes it move, leave it there, and let the puffer check it out without you outside watching it. If it doesn't work, remove the shrimp, and try again next day - without serving the puffer any other food in the mean time.
Wild caught puffers very often brings with them a load of IPs too, so that's another thing you need to keep an eye on, if the puffer continues to refuse to eat. But again: it's quite normal for a puffer to refuse to eat after moving. Give him time to settle in.

Agreed, its probably stressed out and getting used to the new tank. These guys can go several days (sometimes even weeks) without eating so don't start panicking yet

If you don't have any corals or anything, try turning off the tank lights for a few days so it feels more secure.

You can also offer it a live nightcrawler, most puffers will accept these when nothing else seems to tempt them. Try to use feeding tongs so it recognizes them as a source of food, and that will make future "dead" food feedings easier.

Be sure you are removing any uneaten food though.. a 75 gallon tank is too small for a porc long term, and you'll have to keep that water extremely clean to keep him healthy until you can upgrade.

Mine puffer surfed the glass for maybe two weeks. They are not use to the boundaries and are probably trying to get around it. Turning your lights off really helps with this and other stress. Have you tried clams yet? My puffer turned his nose at a few things at first but went straight for the clam although he isn't a porcupine.

I have a couple of corals in there so i cant really turn out the lights, I put mussles in there now before i go to bed and i saw him dominating them when he thinks im not watching so im not to worried, he also quit glass surfing as much as he used to, i had to make a cave for him out of my live rock which he spends most of the days in until i put a couple little freshwater crabs i have had for like 3 months in a freshwater tank and he was very interested in them and im sure they arent alive any more haha. thanks for all the info though

I would ask the LFS what they were feeding the puffer and how long they had it. When I purchase a fish that has not been at the LFS for very long, I purchase it and let it stay at the LFS for 7 to 10 days and ask them to feed it specific things or I find out exactly what they are feeding so when I get it I will be feeding it the same thing.

Mek0ng wrote:Try some live food, its better for him to eat a gut packed gold fish or ghost shrimp than nothing.

gold fish arent a good idea, very dirty/diseased that you can easily introduce sometime to your fish, not to mention that they are FW so they would last all but 5 or 10 mins in full marine conditions(not much time for it to catch the food while its still alive, then after it dies from the salt you still have a porc that wont eat live food). also they are very fatty especially for fish that arent evolved to eat a diet consisting fish and can cause fatty liver disease.

try earthworms and if that still wont catch his attention try soaking it in garlic. after you got him did you leave the tank lights off overnight to help him settle in?

+1

Don't try a goldfish for any puffers, especially for ones that aren't piscivores. There are healthier and more humane options.

I agree 100%. Try a live crab or an earthworm. I also would not put any food in there & then leave it to rot overnight. You could wake up with a cloudy, crashed tank, full of dead fish.