The Puffer Forum

...and he's looking sooo thin! I've tried everything I can think of apart from force-feeding the poor guy. He's never been terribly interested in food anyway, but his firm favourite has always been prawns. Now he might take one bite (two maximum) and then he acts like he can't even see the food! I have tried snails, prawns, cockles(frozen thawed), even resorted to frozen thawed bloodworms, white worms and brine shrimp!..there are 6 ghost shrimp survivors living in the tank. I have tried garlic...nothing!
This might sound silly, but I thought it might have been psychological, because the last time I really remember him eating more than a couple of bites, Mickey (seemingly accidentally, but not aggressively) bit him on the nose. I tried to sort of round him up last night, because with all this trying to temp ceylon, Mickey is as big as a house!
I want to leave netting/force-feeding to a last resort, because he's a 5", very strong/wild fish and gets very stressed... the minute he sees a net, he starts jumping!

Funny this is, for the first time EVER, he has a white belly!...can this be a bad sign, too?

Please help. I'd hate to lose this fight now!

We need you to answer the Qs in the top sticky, so we can weed out other problems.

Of course, sorry...have to get an up-to-date reading after work... I'll get back with that!

pH:8.4
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20
Temp: 78

He's gone!
I went crazy last night trying to feed him anything I could, and eventually rushing out to buy another syringe because I couldn't find mine. I blended some food and caught him (he was so weak and skinny that it wasn't hard for once!) tried to force-feed him and he just kept spitting it at me and spittign water at me! I tried for ages and he just wasn't interested. He was purposefully not eating...
I only ever cried so much when my dog died... Did I stress him out too much trying to forcefeed him? Could he have been stressed out too much/permanently damaged by the poor water quality whilst I had to change filters over? He got so skinny so suddenly as well... was just trying to entice him with no hurry for around a week and a half and all of a sudden it became urgent! Not quite so "Lucky" to be with me then I guess... Mickey's fine and chubby and happy and white bellied, though...that's what I don't get!
sorry Ceylon.

Sorry to hear he didn't make it.

Saffib - sorry for your loss. I think the fact that Mickey is fine is evidence that the Ceylon's rapid decline had nothing to do with your care. It looks like he was on his was out when you forcefed him - I don't think that's what killed him.

I remember that you got him from terrible conditions and I said he was "lucky" that you found him. Its more possible that you extended his life by quite a bit and that he would have died much earlier had you not rescued him.

I agree CSF. You tried Saffib, that's all you can do. Too bad he didn't find you sooner.

So sorry...

Thankyou so much...was so worried that you'd agree and tell me what I did wrong... I did try my best, but can't help feeling bad. Poor guy went through a lot and then, when all seeemed to be going right, he turned anorexic!
I miss him!

Eating disorders affect us all please make a donation to the puffer forum so we can develop a cure for this epidemic! lol

Sorry to hear about your Puffer.