The Puffer Forum

Hi, recently I have notice that Birdy doesn't digest his prawns properly. I understand many animal doesn't but its just doesn't seems too normal in my case..

Just yesterday, I cut up a mid size prawn(ard 2-3in) to 3 pieces. Birdy, being a big fish, does not really need to chew.. He swallowed them up immediately as always. But this morning, the same 3 pieces + abit of messy stuff turned up on the substrate.. So it should be from his other end. Problem is they are still encased in the shell.. They looked totally undigested as I see clearly the whites and reds of the prawn.

So, any advice?

It's possible your fish puked these pieces up, too. Without having really seen if they come out the front or back door this is hard to deal with. Perhaps partially crush the prawns when feeding to help with the shell being broken down.

Also, is your heater/water temperature where it should be? Without proper heat and activity the fish's metabolism may not be working properly.

Its defo from the other end as they are wrapped with the dun know wat mucus thing.. Temp is at 86f. Coming to end of ich treatment.

Oh okay. Well it may have something to do with the ich problem. Do you know what caused the ick. Whatever weakened the immune system in the first place may be causing this problem.

The only thing I could think of is sharing once a net from my recently acquired do that I found later to have ich.. But I did dry out the net before use though.. Yeah.. I know that's dumb. So now I dun share anything..

Oh, I'm sure that's where the ich came from, then.

Well, I'd say that the food thing may be because of lowered immune system or puffers may just not completely break down shells, which would make a lot of sense. Just try crushing up the shell a bit more when feeding.

Expecting normal metabolism during any treatment regime is really asking a lot. At elevated temperatures , reduced O2, and whatever meds are in use, you have to expect abnormalities in metabolism.

Ok. Few days more and the treatment can stop. Will monitor how things goes after that. Many thanks!