The Puffer Forum

basically, i got a second puffer for our tank, same size puffer as my current one, at only 1 and a half " max.
he seems to have settled in fine, but he doesnt seem to be eating. i put a frozen bloodworm cube in in the mornings and all the fish have a feast. I even rattle it around a bit so the bloodworm gets spread about a bit so theres no risk of competition. well, this new puffer grabs some bloodworm and u can see him trying to chew it, and he spits it out, tried to chew, spits it out and doesnt end up swallowing it. ive tried him on snails, and again he doesnt eat them. ive put cockel in there and he doesnt eat that either.

my first puffer has a huge belly today where hes obv gone round taking more than his fair share, so i cant put more food in for the second puffer.


is there something wrong with him? his belly is always flat, so hes deff not eating. whereas with the first puffer u can tell when hes had somethin to eat cos his belly goes all potbellied, altho its extra huge today

im not sure what to do, even if i manage to sneak the second puffer something when the other is on the other side of the tank, he doesnt seem to be able to eat it

How long has the puffer been in the tank?

What kind of puffer's are they?

What kind of tank mates are there?

What size tank do you have them in?

This will all greatly help to answer your questions accurately.

they are figure 8 puffers.
hes been in the tank since tuesday.
they are living in a community tank at the moment, with 4 baby angelfish, 3 dwarf gouramis, 5 danios, 2 rams and 2 plecos. its a jewel rio 125.

they will be shortly moved to their own 30 gallon tank.

It can take puffers a while to settle in and get used to their new home before eating. I would wait a while before getting too worried. You can try soaking the food in garlic guard to attract him to the food.

Yup at this point I would wait it out.

Also with the snails you're tossing in there.

Make sure the snail is about the size of the puffer's eye. Any larger I usually crush the shell befor I toss it in there.

Smaller snails work sometimes, but try and drop it right in front of them so they don't miss it.

When I drop in a snail of appropriate size it usually doesn't make it to the bottom of the tank haha.

What I would recommend is catching the one that isn't getting as much food in a net, but don't remove the net from the water, and try feeding him inside the net so the others can't get at the food or him.

good advice about snails. i have on occasion put bigger ones in and theyve struggled. i do also find if i dont drop it infront of their nose they dont see it!

i will try catching him in a net , thats a good idea.

I hope you quarantined the new puffer before putting it in the tank, but it doesn't sound like you did. If there was something wrong with it, it could easily infect all of your other fish.

You really shouldn't have bought another brackish puffer when you only have a freshwater community tank setup.

If you had a quarantine setup, it would be very simple to make sure the new puffer got its fair share of food.

the catching it in a net didnt work. he didnt seem interested in eating at all. im hoping he will start eating soon. it doesnt seem like hes not getting a chance to get food, theres not much competition, cept for the other puffer, but its fairly easy to keep the other occupied.

I strongly advice against netting a puffer in order to get it to eat.
This is completely unnecessary and also very stressful for an already obviously uncomfortable fish.

My advice would be to starve the colony (all inhabitants) for a week or so, thus making everyone work up an apetite...

Your new (brackish) puffer should also have been quarantined before it was introduced to a community tank.
Wild caught specimens, totally stressed out of their wits by the usual havoc involved in being caught, transported in LARGE groups in limited space and subjected to a wide variety of water chemistry, more often than not carry disease and parasites which might infect the other inhabitants of the tank.

Do the right thing.
Establish a brackish system in the 30 gallon you mentioned ASAP.

No, its not an idea solution, but for those who insist on keeping them in a community tank, feeding in a net can be the only means of preventing starvation. I'd rather not hear that it wasted away to nothing because it couldn't get anything to eat, not if its as simple a solution as feeding it in isolation.

Woland wrote:I strongly advice against netting a puffer in order to get it to eat.
This is completely unnecessary and also very stressful for an already obviously uncomfortable fish.

My advice would be to starve the colony (all inhabitants) for a week or so, thus making everyone work up an apetite...

Your new (brackish) puffer should also have been quarantined before it was introduced to a community tank.
Wild caught specimens, totally stressed out of their wits by the usual havoc involved in being caught, transported in LARGE groups in limited space and subjected to a wide variety of water chemistry, more often than not carry disease and parasites which might infect the other inhabitants of the tank.

Do the right thing.
Establish a brackish system in the 30 gallon you mentioned ASAP.

yes it did seem to stress him out more than anything else. so i wont be doing that again. are puffers wild caught? i always thought they were from breeders? i apologise if im being naiive

im getting the brackish tank setup ASAP

Hey, no problem
Very few puffers reproduce in captivity.
And brackish & marine puffers least of all.

I think there was a guy in Germany who managed to breed GSP and actually raise fry, but that is the only success I have heard of.
So; our little ones are wildcaught and often in a sorry state when we buy them.

Give them proper care.

cough cough. I believe there is a guy in the UK breeding puffers at the moment. lol.

The exeption that confirmes the rule, dear Rocker!