The Puffer Forum

Hello all,

My baby Sushi hasn't been looking her best lately. She has an amazing appetite (never fails to eat) but I don't know what happened to her once-plump appearance! She used to look extremely healthy and now she has a sunken belly and I can even see her "boxy" skeleton under that skin. At first I thought it was nothing but I could no longer ignore it because she just looks skinny even though she eats lots!

1. pH~8.2, ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 5, salinity 0.024 (pretty normal for this tank) Temp 68 (colder tank)
2. tank size 50G, she only lives with a sea urchin and some corals
3. feed 6 days a week--alternating between frozen blood worms, frozen brine shrimp, frozen squid, and frozen shrimp. 10% WC weekly with skimmer's help pulling extra junk out
4. nothing.
5. 2 or 3 years. completely cycled.

I am suspecting it's a case of an IP, but it could be anything.

Please let me know if you have any suggestions! Sushi is my baby and I hate to see her wasting away.
thanks,
joanne

oh nooo.. not Sushi!!! I hope you can find the cause quickly.

If it is IP's as suspected why now? She's been healthy for so long what new stressors is she exposed to?

First thought would be IP's, stressor being boredom (potentially)

Next thought. Do you actually see her eat?

Next thought,, maybe not enough nutrition in her diet? Blood worms & brine shrimp are not the best options. They are not bad necessarily, but you could certainly obtain more nutritional foods.

Hope she gets better!

My lil piggie just ate a whole shrimp soaked in Selcon & Vita-Chem. Definitely treat for IPs & up the nutrition.

An alternative explanation to IP would be problems with digestion.
As noted above, I'd recommend feeding mostly meaty foods and in this case as much as it will eat (your water parameters are perfect).
Since you are feeding frozen foods I'd add vitamins at least once a week (or more often) since a lot of vitamins are lost during freezing and thawing.

Thanks for all your input!

Hm stressors--- I did let the tank evaporate a bit too much about a month ago and the salinity spiked to 0.028. Other than that, what I can only think of is the new kitten that I have, who never pays attention to Sushi's tank in my presence. He could have been scaring Sushi behind my back when I'm at work though.

Seeing her eat--yes, I watch her finish her food every time. I make she she eats til her belly is really round before i walk away. Occasionally she is so full she even pukes the food out and re-eat it immediately. Appetite is not an issue.

Nutrition-- I'll up the vitamin soak and get a new bag of frozen seafood for her.

IP--yeah I was confused why she looks like shes got parasites, while I haven't introduced anything new the tank for a long time. I'll treat her with IP meds in a week or so if the increased nutrition fails to improve her condition.

Thanks a lot!

Update: Sushi is back to being plump and fat after I started feeding a pure meaty seafood diet + vitamins. I'm glad to say that I don't have to resort to IP meds to get her back to good health.

Merry Christmas everyone and may your puffer bring you tons of joy!

YAY!! Go SUSHI!!!

What is he eating now? I'm having a tough time getting mine to eat much else but live blackworms. He's not thin at all though. Eats vitamin-packed people shrimp too.

Sushi's eating vitamin-packed medium shrimp and little baby crabs. I have taken the frozen mysis shrimp/blackworms/sea monkeys out of the diet and she's been fattening up real fast.