new Dogface won't eat

[VanillaGorila]

Hello Everyone, first post. I got a small (maybe 4") dogface puffer about a month ago and I can not get him to eat. I've tried krill, PE mysis, chopped up chunks of shrimp from the market and chunks of scallops. He has no interest in eating any of the foods that I put in the tank. when I first added him, he was beat up by my GSM clown a little bit, but that has stopped and everyone else seems to leave him alone. he's been surviving by eating some of the corals still left in the tank, he's cleaned out all of the button polyps and has now turned on my last piece of frogspawn. (I only left these coral in the tank because I didn't want them anymore and don't care if they get eaten.)

[bertie 83]

prob a bit insecure in its new home give live food and see if hunting instinct kicks in ghost shrimp earthworms etc bet that will kick start his appetite

[allycat]

Hey, I would love to help but I don't have a saltwater puff. +1 to bert's recommendation about live earthworms: try tongs or tweezers.

Someone's gonna ask you these Q's, pasted from "Hospital" section. I know your fish might not be sick, but all of these things are very important to get the big picture:

"Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.

1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.

2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.

3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)

4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.

5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.

We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster."

Also, there are great articles in the Library on this website about feeding your puffer. Just go to the row of blue tabs at the top of the page and select Library from the "Learn" tab.

I spent hours reading those articles, really cool stuff in there!

Hope he eats soon,
Ally

Also

[El Scorpio]

He doesn't sound comforatable in his new home, yet. It is not uncommon for puffs to take maybe a month or two to fully adjust to their new surroundings. That being said, he also isn't used to eating 'dead' foods, like frozen shrimp and the like. I think everyone so far has the right idea; try to kick start his appetite with some live foods.

[bertie 83]

if u decide to feed ghost shrimp gutfill with something like bloodworm first from what i understand they dont have much nutritional value good luck

[greenspottedlover]

I suggest live food or using feeding tongs also.

By the way, I love dogfaces! I actually wanted to get one. If only I could have every kind of puffer. Any pics?

[FADE2BLACK_1973]

+1 for all the other advices above. Well he sounds like he is eating because he cleaned them corals out.

[VanillaGorila]

thanks guys, I'll give those suggestions a try. BTW he's in a 150g, 60x24x24 with a couple of tangs, a blue jaw trigger and the pair of GSM clowns.