Palembangensis barely eating.
Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2018 10:41 am
It's been a very, very long time since last time. Years, actually. Right now I have only one puffer, a palembangensis, and I have had her only a few months. And right now she is barely eating. She really puzzles me, because she looks really normal. Not thin in any way, and her belly is fine and white, and she looks like a healthy puffer. When I got her, it took a while before I got her to take dead food. She has been the trickiest one I have had. But in the end, she started eating the shrimps I gave her, and in a normal puffer way: very interested when the food came to her. Then she stopped eating. I hadn't dewormed her when I got her, which I usually do, but when she stopped eating, I gave her Wormer Plus. After that, she has startet eating veeery tiny bits of food. My previous palembangensis ate 1 shrimp every other day. My new palembangensis does now eat 1/4 of a shrimp every 4-5 days. Sometimes she just gnaws a little on the shrimp. As she still looks really healthy, I don't panic yet. But I have a long vacation coming up pretty soon. I will be gone for a month, and a very non aquaristic friend of mine will feed her while I am gone (My puffer and my friend share the same name: Marianne), and have no way of picking out the uneaten shrimps afterwards. If I had more time before my vacation, I have several things I want to try to make her eat normal amounts again. But I have less than two weeks to fix the problem. My only solution I can think of, is to buy a Box of earthworms, and hope that live food will keep her eating while I am gone, and then I have to trick her into eating dead food when I come back.
I don't have the water parameters, as all my testkits are very, very out of date, and of no use. I kickstarted the filter, and it has been up and running for several months now. There should be no problems with that, and I really, really think that the problems isn't in the water, as she is looking so healthy. As my previous palembangensis she has her favorite spot, where she stays most of the time. She swims around rarely (at least not as I see), but if I remember right, palembangs prefer moving around at night. She panicks very easily though, more than any puffer I've had before her. She doesn't puff, but almost jumps out of the tank if I do anything at all to the tank (except at feeding). She doesn't have any tank mates, and have nothing else she could secretly feed on when I am sleeping. There has been no changes to the tank since she moved in. I think that is all information I can provide right now. I need some advice on this strange, little palembang.
I don't have the water parameters, as all my testkits are very, very out of date, and of no use. I kickstarted the filter, and it has been up and running for several months now. There should be no problems with that, and I really, really think that the problems isn't in the water, as she is looking so healthy. As my previous palembangensis she has her favorite spot, where she stays most of the time. She swims around rarely (at least not as I see), but if I remember right, palembangs prefer moving around at night. She panicks very easily though, more than any puffer I've had before her. She doesn't puff, but almost jumps out of the tank if I do anything at all to the tank (except at feeding). She doesn't have any tank mates, and have nothing else she could secretly feed on when I am sleeping. There has been no changes to the tank since she moved in. I think that is all information I can provide right now. I need some advice on this strange, little palembang.