Pea Puffer Struggling to Eat

[DwarfPuffa]

Hi there,

I have a pea puffer/dwarf puffer who I noticed the last few weeks has become very skinny. She is still active, normal shape, vibrant in color, and very interested in food. Nothing about her behavior or appearance has changed. Nothing in her environment has changed. Nothing about what we have been feeding her had changed. I’ve noticed though, that she seems to be having trouble eating larger things (even those we’ve always fed her like blood worms). She eats them and then regurgitates them (I know you will see them do that often to chew food up, but she doesn’t do that anymore. She just spits the food out and seems to abandon it).

I have tried starting to feed her every day, sometimes multiple times a day (prior to this I fed her every other day) and I have tried adding different types of food that may be easier for her to eat. I’ve tried mysis shrimp and brine shrimp. I have tried cutting up or smashing the shrimp and bloodworms. Nothing really seems to work. She’s still having trouble eating and is extremely thin.

Does anyone have any suggestions for things to feed? Or how to help her eat?

For reference: she lives in a ten gallon freshwater tank with one male pea puffer. They have always gotten along great and never had any real aggression towards each other. I have had them both for years and I can’t remember how their tank was started.

I don’t know the chemical information (like the nitrates, etc). My partner is the one who checks all that, but I believe it is all within good ranges.

We typically feed them (until recently when I tried changing things to help) every other day. We feed them blood worms via a dropper. We feed them pond snails from our other tank once a week, when available.

Any advice is sincerely appreciated.

Kat

[Pufferpunk]

Sorry to hear this. How long have you had her?

[DwarfPuffa]

We've had her for several years and she's never acted like this before.

[Pufferpunk]

They don't live very long. That's why I asked.
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