The Puffer Forum

Hi,
I was hoping someone could offer some advice regarding one of our dwarf puffers. We got 6 in total back in April this year. We feed a mix of frozen food (bloodworm, mosquito larvae, cockles) and live food when we can get it (daphnia, bloodworm, water fleas and tubifex once). Five of them eat well and their bellies are usually nicely rounded afterwards. They would probably eat more if I offered it. The sixth one doesn't seem to eat. He grabs hold of the food then lets it go, then grabs it again, then lets it go, etc until he gets bored. I've always recognised him because he was smaller than the others but the last couple of days he appears to be almost emaciated, and isn't rushing to the front of the tank whenever we walk past like the others do.
When we first got them they had plenty of snails since the tank had a nasty snail infestation. They took care of that within a week. We're trying to breed more for them but so far production has been slow, to say the least, so they haven't seen many snails since we got them.

We've got a quarantine tank coming free in the next couple of days and I'm thinking of moving him over into the that where I can keep a better eye on him.

Does anyone have any ideas what is wrong with him.


Tank stats......
approx 30g, planted with 6 DPs and 2 otos. Tank is fully cycled, having previously been used as a community set up.
50% water changes done weekly. Nothing is added to the water other than dechlorinator. Ammonia/nitrite/nitrate - 0/0/5ish. pH is around 8. Nothing added since the DPs went in there in April. Lost a couple of otos around the beginning of May.


Thanks in advance for any advice you can give.

Clare

I would definitely feed him separate for a few days to keep an eye on him, not in a separate tank maybe in a breeding net as not to stress him too much he may be a slow eater I have seen this with mine once they get their strength back should feed more competitively. Or maybe he is being bullied

+1 to Bertie's advice. That's what I was going to reccomend. One of my 3 is a slower eater. I make sure once or twice a week to isolate him IN the tank in a breeder box to keep him extra bloodworms. Good luck.

OK, I have a breeding box somewhere. He won't get too stressed if I move him into that for a few days inside the main tank?
I'll sort him out later tonight.

Just put him there whilst feeding 2 or 3 times a week he won't mind he can eat at his pace. After a short while he will most likely swim in on his own

OK, we've popped him in the breeding box, and added a couple of pieces of frozen cockle.
I'm quite worried about him now...I think this is more than just being a slow eater. He's spending most of his time lying on the bottom of the box and has shown no interest in the food at all. He really is very emaciated. We're planning on leaving him on the breeding box overnight - the tank is quite heavily planted making it difficult to find him normally.

I have no info on the availability of live food in the UK. Do you have any ready access to items such as live blackworms or Red cherry shrimp.

Many puffers - but usually wild caught - are slow to accept non-living foods. Trying a live item or two might ease the transition to available but possibly unfamiliar foods.

Very severe intestinal parasite infestations do sometimes suppress feeding in puffers. Is the fish severely hollow-bellied?

IPs could be a culprit.... here it was mentioned that they can infect the throat area making feeding undesirable.

I had 3 of mine waste away for some reason. If it was IP's I didn't find them, but I didn't look in the throat.

Also it won't hurt to med them just in case.

I'm a puffer noob, but is it possible that his teeth are too long? Maybe try trimming them? That's kind of how my GSP was acting before I trimmed his teeth.

considering the size of a DP, it is possible but trimming is impractical. Do you have any way of checking if being long in the tooth is the problem?

I've never heard of a DP needing dentistry.

It was my understanding that DPs don't have the problem with over-growing beaks like other puffers.

I had wondered about parasites though. Its difficult to describe but whereas the others have quite round bodies tapering off down their tails, this guy instantly turns to practically nothing once you get past his head. I'll try to get a photo tonight - it's easier than trying to describe it.

Live food is readily available in the UK, but there's only place near us that does it and their supply is intermittant. Because of this all our DPs usually accept frozen but they'll take pretty much anything live that we put in there when we can get it. I never thought about tempting him with live food - my husband is travelling around Scotland today so I'll see if he can track some down.

How's this for a plan....I'll try him with live food tonight (although last time we fed live bloodworms he just played with them and didn't eat them). If he's still not keen, I'll transfer him to the 10g quarantine tank that'll be free this week and look at treating for intestinal parasites. What kind of meds will I need for that?

Thanks so much for all your help.

Clare

Live brine shrimp should tempt him to eat. Try not to stress him when moving him if you decide to. I buy my live food in bulk and refrigerate it they sleep and wake up when they hit the tank water. Depending on quality should last about a week

Oh or peas mine love them

I suggest you try a garlic soak for some of his food. Just mash a clove of if up, take some tank water and put it in a shotglass or something. Add a little of the food, and let it soak maybe 15-30 minutes, I'd try 15 first, as to not overdo it. I've had a little success in getting GSPs interested that way. And of course, give it to him in the box or net, or the others will totally steal it, since it has "puff bait" on it.