The Puffer Forum

Hi all,

I have a new dwarf puffer who I have had for about a week and a half. Things were going swimmingly until 2 days ago when she stopped eating.

-Water parameters - 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 5 or less nitrate, no salinity as this is a freshwater puffer.
-The tank is 5.6 gallons with just the puffer and now 2 pond snails that I put in to entice her to eat which she hasn't.
-I have been feeding her once per day, alternating between frozen bloodworms, pond snails, and occasionally frozen brine shrimp. She has been eating just fine up until now. I do about an 80% water change once per week, and Prime is my water treatment and the only thing I add to the water routinely. On Saturday night, I added 1/2 a packet of API General Cure (for internal parasites). I am scheduled to add the other 1/2 packet tonight.
-I have made no changes to the tank.
-The aquarium has been set up for 3 weeks. I cycled using mature filter media from my 55 gallon tank. It was 100% completely cycled for a full week before I added my puffer. The temperature is 77 degrees.

The thing is - it seems like she wants to eat, but something is stopping her. Perhaps this is normal behavior when she isn't feeling well, but I've not kept a puffer before so I have no frame of reference. Friday night, I tried feeding her bloodworms but she just looked at them. Saturday night, I offered them again as well as brine shrimp and daphnia and pond snails. She came out all excited and nipped at the pipette and the food but then just kind of looked at the food as it floated away from her. Sunday morning, she was just lying on her rock. I thought she was dead but when I put my face down toward her, she swam up and did the "shifty eyes" at me and then was swimming around normally. Sunday night she repeated the same thing - nipped at the pipette and nipped at the bloodworm but then just couldn't eat it and watched it sink away.

I know they can go for a long time without eating, but if she's feeling unwell I would like to treat her. I added the anti-parasitic because I know puffers can be prone to parasites. I have epsom salts, but she doesn't appear to be bloated - though I'm not sure I would be able to tell. I don't want to try to entice her to eat more if she's constipated/bloated, but then I am not 100% sure if that's her trouble. It did seem like she was interested and trying to eat but then gave up. I haven't found anywhere nearby that sells any live food other than mealworms. I could dig outside for earth worms? I do not treat my lawn or garden with any chemicals. Blackworms appear to be out of stock/on back-order everywhere. I will receive some cherry shrimp tomorrow which I could offer her if folks think that would help.

She ate a couple of bloodworms tonight! It took about 20 minutes of enticing though.

This is Storm. I can't get any better pictures of her on my phone camera - I'll have to dig out the actual camera.

+1 on the cherry shrimp. It will leave the adults alone but hunt down the fry if it make it in time for them to develop. Your pal is on a very short schedule unfortunately. This is not an uncommon problem as Dwarfs are VERY picky eaters.

In the mean time, try taking one of the smaller pond snails and cracking the shell so that it bleeds.

Thank you. I will put some shrimp in there and crack some pond snails.

I wonder if she would go for the Repashy Meat Pie I feed my bettas.

sorry to say it, but your puffer does not look well to me
seems very thin & emaciated
definitely not bloated
may have IPs
many say that IP medicine needs to be administered by soaking the food in it, and that adding the meds to the water is of little or no benefit

Most animals past the point of starvation into emaciacion, will never eat again. Force-feeding has worked for larger species, your puffer is too small. Did you purchase it like this?

Her appearance hasn't changed since I got her. I thought she was just small because she was a juvenile

She was eating very well the first couple of days, and she also ate 2-3 bloodworms this evening. I will go soak some more in the medication and see if she will eat it. Thanks everyone.

Sorry for the multiple posts, but I want to do everything I can for her.

I soaked some brine shrimp in the meds and a dab of garlic juice and got her to eat 4-5 little shrimps by basically just shoving them in front of her face until she ate them. Now I see what people mean about the rounded belly. I didn't want to overfeed her. But if I can continue to get her to eat, should I try to give her 2 or 3 small meals per day until she fattens up? I googled pictures of DPs and I now see that she's really skinny. I wish I had helped my wife pick her out, though I'm not sure I would have noted she was skinny unless there was a stark contrast between her and the other puffers in the tank. I will do my best to turn things around for her. I couldn't catch any of the darn shrimp to put them in her tank, and she didn't care about the smushed pond snail. The only live food I have been able to find anywhere are mealworms - could I gut load them and maybe throw in some vitachem for good measure and feed her those to help her gain weight?

Pictures of her fat tummy after the brine shrimp.

Great job getting HIM to eat meds! Do I see wrinkles behind his eyes???

The reason for soaking foods with meds for IPs is that FW fish do not drink water, so cannot benefit from meds in the tank water. They have no need to drink water as they absorb water through their skin and gills and thus need to dump excess water constantly to preserve their blood & tissue from going hypotonic and crashing their required tissue/water balances. SW fish drink constant but have specialized kidney functions to preservre blood/tissue osmolarity at the required levels - mechanisms which primary FW fish lack. Sharks, rays, and such have different mechanisms for achieving the same ends.

FWIW

Lol is he a boy? I just defaulted to calling him a her because I couldn't really tell the gender, and he's named after our female cat, Storm.

Any rule of thumb as to how long I should continue the medication?

Feed meds every meal for 5 days.
library/puffers-in-focus/sexing-carinot ... rf-puffer/

It's a boy!

purplecandle wrote:It's a boy!

Rotfl! Anyway, hope everything goes well for him! He's a cute little puff

Thanks everyone! I found an LFS that actually carries live blackworms, so I just picked some up. Hopefully some good enticing live food plus the meds will get Storm on the road to recovery. I have a sick betta right now who probably won't make it, and I really don't think I can take two dead fish in the same week