The Puffer Forum

PH 8.0
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
Still in freshwater
20 gallon with 2 verry small ceylon puffers 1" long
Feeding frozen blood worms 2 small feedings a day sometimes frozen brine shrimp, Was doing 50% water changes twice daily for a week due to Nitrite poisoning now doing 20-30% every second day, i use seachem prime and stability nothing else.
Aquarium has been set up for about 2-3 months and used fishless cycle

Okay so now that the nitrite poisoning has been taken care of and my tank is cycled my 2 ceylons wont poop. it has been a couple days scince i have noticed either of them go to the bathroom and there bellys are staying round for alot longer than normal like a day or more aswell as looking verry lumpy instead of one big puffy tummy. they are swimming around like normal and are still verry intrested in food but i have cutback feeding them and went to my LFS who told me to try feeding them peas to help pass the mass, should i do this or is there a better solution?

One tbsp Epsom salt/5g for constipation.

TY! will go buy some first thing in the morning

You should also look into a more varied diet for better health.

You can find Epsom salt in any drugstore. We'll get those puffers straightened out!

i have tried to feed them snails but i think they are still to hard for them and the ones i tried are no bigger than there eye they just kinda look at them stare for a min or 2 then its right back to what there were doing i will try some gut loaded ghost shrimp and maybe mysis. let me know if u think i should try anything else any input is awesome scince these are my first puffers.

Crush the snails with something hard and just toss it into the tank. They can smell the blood and will be more attracted to it. I am not completely sure why, but young puffers aren't really attracted to snails unless they're crushed up.

Also you can go to the seafood section at your grocery store and looked for uncooked and unseasoned foods like muscles, squid legs, oysters, shrimp, and tilapia.

When you feed them muscles and oysters, pull a lot of the meat off and leave just a thin bit so they will have to scrape their teeth against the shell to pull the meat up; it helps with keeping their beaks trimmed.

How long have you had these puffers, anyway?

Oh, I forgot to add if the seafood you buy isn't frozen be sure to freeze it. keep it frozen for 24 hours, then thaw in some tank water, not tap water (do this in a separate dish though). You can also add vitamins to the water so your puffers get their vitamins. You can buy the vitamins from your LFS. Kent Zoe and Vita-chem are the brands most often used around here.

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask.

Frozen/thawed brine shrimp is a very poor food, but a great appetite stimulant. The gut solids from it are very small unless massively overfed. It is best used co-fed with new foods which are unfamiliar to the fish.

Frozen/thawed blood worms are more nutritious, and have high gut solids. Do you see lumps in their bellies after easting?

You should do a wider food selection.

yeah after i feed them the one looks like it has eaten a pice of popcorn and the other is still nice and round. I have had these puffers for about a month now

okay so i got the epsom salt took me all day to find unscented but i got it. so 1tbsp per 5 gallons and do i jsut do massive waterchanges to get rid of it after or should i setup another tank? sorry im verry new to keeping puffers

ive had to do this a few times now for my fig 8s i was told that no wc's are needed when giving epsom salt but you want to put the epsom in another container with treated water then let it dissolve then put it in tank.

okay i kinda figured as much i did my 20% waterchange tonight so i added the 4 tbsp to the treated water befor i added it to the tankwater the turned my filters on high to help circulate for a couple hours. no poop yet tho been about 5 hours but man they are begging me for food lol every time i go to the living room they are at the glass in no time waiting for it.

YAY cheeto pooped now dot needs to poop and i got them some muscles and Mysis aswell as Kent Zoecon if thats the stuff u were talking about nuke. i looked for vitacan but all they had was vita-chem for fresh water didnt know if that was the right stuf so i saved myself 34$

Yeah, that should be fine. You just treat their food with it. Also, in wal mart, in the fishing section they sell earthworms; puffers will go crazy for earthworms. You generally have to cut them up so the puffer can smell them, though. You may want to not feed them until they're pooping though.