The Puffer Forum

For some reason my Mbu puffer has stopped eating. He used to devour snails, fiddler crabs, and frozen krill. Now out of nowhere it seems like he's scarred of the food when I drop it in the tank. He still goes after the fiddler crabs but takes one bite and leaves them. Can someone give me some insight on this please?

Please answer all the Qs above, in RED.

Ph: 7.0, nitrite: 0ppm, nitrate: 0ppm

He is in a planted 75 right now. He is the only one in there and he is about 4 inches.

Like I said he was eating frozen krill once a day and either a fiddler crab, crawfish, or a snail to supplement . I have been doing weekly water changes of 15-20% and the tank has been set up for about a year.

The products I add when doing water changes are Aquasafe and Stress Coat. Flora Pride on alternate weeks for the plants.

Forgot ammonia which is at 0.

What nitrate test are you using? You should be showing some detectable nitrate.

You've had him a year & he's only 4"??? Please post a pic of him, so I can see it he has IPs. How does his poop look?

Haha...no no. The tank has been running for about a year, I have only had him MAYBE 2 months. At the moment I am using the Mardel 5 in 1 Test Strips and the coloration indicates that my nitrates are more closely to 0 than 20. His poop looks fine. Just like it did when he was eating alot...only less of it. This picture was taken about a week ago.

Yeah, he doesn't look like he has IPs at all. Actually, a bit overfed!

I'm going to try to vary up his diet a little more and hopefully he will go for something he hasn't had before, say earthworms or clams. Would you recommend this?

heslovely!
maybe hes overfed, and is just too full to eat as much as you have been giving him?
earthworms should be a favourite with him!

He looks extremely good. Beautiful color and healthy looking compare to some of the other Mbu's that I have seen on here. I agree with the other's, could be over feeding him to the point that he is full. I think afew of the other members and I was talking about something like this the other day. Keeping them fed but not overfed. I would not throw anything in there for him to eat for about two days and then try something after that but not too much at a time.

Thanks all. I will try that and see what happens. I'll give everyone an update in a couple days. Anyone have any suggestions on vitamin supplements?

Zoe or Vita-Chem.

Freshwater Vita-Chem

Waited a couple days and i dropped a shrimp in today...he gobbled it right up!! Thanks for the help everyone. I'm going to try to keep him on a much stricker feeding schedule.

That's good to hear. I think keeping them a little hungry helps.