The Puffer Forum

my figure 8 is not digesting his/her food its belly is the same size it was 5 days ago. ive been keeping it in a net in the tank while i feed the other ones so it doesnt eat anymore. hoping that it would digest its food. i have no idea what to do to help it any advice would be great thank you.

Has it been treated for IPs? I know your tank is overstocked--is he being bullied by the others? Please post parameters.

by ips i think u mean internal parasites? thats not the problem. no it is not being bullied at all. everything else in the tank is fine. i think it ate hard parts of the crayfish ive been feeding them and it just wont come out. is there anything i can do to help it or is it doomed?

ohh he's constipated? Epsom salts may help

My F8 was stopped up for a few days....

I gave him a 30 min bath in a 1 litre container with 1 tsp of epsom salts

Very important to NOT feed him until it passes

I would also cut back on the amount you feed all of your puffers to avoid similar problems

I only feed crayfish once a week. The other days I feed snails (3 days), bloodworms (1 day), shrimp (1 day)

I only feed 6 out of 7 days a week....all my fish fast for one day to allow their systems to clean out

HTH
Blaine

so by bath you mean just leave him in the container with epsom salt and do nothing else right? and i also vary the diet i feed them bloodworms and snails as well but the hard shell bits of the crayfish is what worries me cause they chomp it up like nothing

You can just put the epsom salt in your tank. 1tbsp per 5gal. Dissolve it in a bit of warm water, then pour it into your tank.

what happens if that doesnt work and how exactly does that work im curious?

It inhibits swelling & helps with pooping. For FW fish it's 1 tbsp/10g, BW/SW, 1 tbsp/5g.

Oops, thanks

i went out and got some and saw that it is a saline laxative which is cool so im relieved that this will work i hope and its also for plant food interestingly enough. thanks for all the help

Good luck, let us know.

Yep, we dose epsom salt in our high tech tank. It's also a fertilizer

i dont know it hasnt got skinnier. it appears to be fine it swims around and looks normal it just wont change size im confused as to what is the problem. ive fed it little bits at a time so it wont die.

Did you dose the Epsom salt? How much?