The Puffer Forum

Hi All! It has been a while since I have been here. I hope you can help...again.
We have had our gsp for 4 or 5 years now, has been fine. Lately he isn't eating much, not much interest.
1) pH=8.2, Ammonia=<.25 ppm, Nitrite=0 ppm, Nitrate=2.5 ppm,Salinity=1.022sg
2) 35 gallon tank, only lives with about 3 nerite snails. He is only about 2 1/2 inches long, is that small?
3) we feed him 6 days a week with thawed frozen sea food, muscles, clams, shrimp, squid and his favorite, octopus. We do a 25% water change each month, have 2 hob filters and live rock. Vac tank 2x a month, have cleaned yearly.
4) have done nothing new at all!
5) has been in this tank for at least 3 years....
Anyway, any ideas would be great! Thank you!

That bit of ammonia could be stressing him out. Maybe that's the reason?

there may or may not be other reasons, but get the ammonia dealt with right away
that in itself, as fishguy12 wrote, may be the reason

Ok, I did a slightly early water change and now the ammonia is 0 ppm or really close. It is just that there isn't much of a color change from 0 ppm to .25 ppm, but I wanted to say that it might not be 0, but it was definitely less than .25.
Any way, if you were trying to intice your gsp to eat, what food would you use? Thanks again! Maybe he is bored, would live food be a good thing to try? If so, what should I get first? The only live stuff he has had are snails.

I'm not sure why but he's definitely stunted. What's the SG in there? I have never done <50% weekly WC but you say you have live rock? Try live foods, especially earthworms.

Hi! SG is 1.022. I have done small weekly water changes because the parameters seemed to stay fine. Should I do bigger changes anyway? Not sure why he is small, saw he should be around 6" which he definitely is not.
We have a worm farm, will give him one now! Thank you!

Not sure how much LR you have but might I suggest adding a protein skimmer & removing the FW filtration you are using?

Hi! I have three smallish LR, not much, but thought I should mention it as a tank inhabitant. Anyway, he loved the worm, and is much brighter and happier...but I think I may have found the problem! He had trouble getting a hold of the worm. Maybe his teeth need a trim?! I am sure there is an article on what to look for and how to do it, on here somewhere. Going to look right now. Let me know if this sounds like a good diagnosis. He may not be disinterested in food, just not able to get much of it? Thanks!

Thanks! I did find a bunch of good info in old posts as well, just can't see his teeth well enough to tell. My plan is to get everything necessary to trim his teeth, then sedate him and look and see. Do any of you have a good pic of gsp that needs its teeth trimmed and one that doesn't? I am inclined to think it is the teeth, but would like to be sure. Thank you again! So grateful to have help from those more experienced!

I only have pics of a fahaka & SAP with teeth issues. Maybe do a net search?

I recommend watching some quick YouTube videos of folks trimming puffers' teeth. The best one I found was this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_3dQwf9kaY

called Trimming Green Spotted Puffer's Teeth. The video is clear and shows the whole process, along with narration that is easy to follow. I like the close up of the before and after of Buckey's teeth.

The bird singing in the background is cute too

Great! Thank you for the link to the video. I did a search and they seemed to vary enough that I was not sure what was good and what was bad! I think I am now ready to at least look him an the mouth and see what is going on in there. For now, he is enjoying live mealworms!

Ok, for the clove oil, is that a cooking item or an essential oil?
Thanks again!

I have never had to look for clove oil for this purpose, but this article:

http://thegab.org/Articles/SedateFinquelCloveOil.html

describing how to dilute clove oil to sedate fish says you can find suitable oil in the toothache section of your pharmacy. Worth a try