The Puffer Forum

please help...my burr puffer stopped eating a week ago; however, appetite has been decreasing for the past 6-7weeks (typically eats silversides/krill/shrimp/clam/pro-v
his mouth is now wide open
nothing visible externally except now some fin rot appeared after second dipping
dipped 2X in RO water & melafix
did notice a stream of small white patches from rectum

350 gallon tank, set-up for 17years
inhabitants: burr puffer, dogface puffer, squirrel, french angel, blue face angel, red sea sailfin tang, powder blue tang, lionfish, snowflake eel (all been in tank at least 3years up to 14years)
ph = 7.9
nitrates ~17
salinity ~1.023
water changes weekly between 40-50%

Please answer ALL the questions above, in red.

What have you been feeding him? All questions in red need answering as pp stated

eats silversides/krill/clam/pro-v/frozen "people" shrimp

Is he just eating the krill? It has links to lockjaw, stop adding it straight off. I am not very tech savvy ( posting links is a mystery to me) but if you search the forum for lockjaw you will find what you need to do, you may need to force feed him for a while so he can keep his strength up to overcome this. Good luck

Still need a LOT more answers from you to narrow down the possibilities.

You have listed the foods. But how much are you feeding on what schedule. Do you soak the foods at all and if so what are you using. Have there been any decor/equipemt changes? What are you using for addtives and have yoy added anything new to the lineup recently?

Possible lionfish sting?

Notice white stream of feces...also contains small disc shapes in feces.
Since no change from melafix dip am now trying Kana Plex; however, considering PraziPro since I'm wondering if he has IP.
All other fish in tank acting and eating normally.