The Puffer Forum

I have 3 F8 puffer's in a 30gal hex tank. I've had them for over a year, so I assume they are pretty full grown now. The problem I have is one of them is a total fatty. It looks like a marble with fins. The other two aren't bad, one is a little overweight and the last is normal sized. Fatty is just a pig, I only feed them every other day, even when fatty is begging, I don't give in. They only eat frozen food, so i try to break it up and chase fatty away so the others can eat first. He/she seems happy and they are all healthy, never had a problem with this tank since I set it up. Is there anyway that anyone can think of to get the weight down on fatty , but still feed them all?
Here's a picture of him and no, they did not just eat.
http://s100.photobucket.com/albums/m18/ ... ure020.jpg

from the image he looks puffed up not fat

they definately looked puffed up to me. Are they like this all the time?

Yeah, he always looks like this, I never seen him puff up. I keep them low keyed because I heard when they puff up, they die. You should see him after feeding .
Here another picture of him.
http://s100.photobucket.com/albums/m18/ ... e022-1.jpg

what do you feed and how much, you should also thaw out the frozen food too are you doing this?

Also aside form the food issue do you have them in Brackish water?

They only eat frozen food, ie. bloodworms, krill, etc, about once a month they get ghost shrimp, and pond snails when I clean my other tank. I usually don't thaw the food, but will now. Always worried about it going bad if it was thawed, oh well.
They live in a brackish tank by themselves.

Also only feed them every other day.

The food you are feeding should only be a treat and not really their staple diet. try feeding mussels, clams and prawns, though they mat refuse as they have never eaten these foods before

Its best to thaw food in a small cup of tank water and I would cut the feeding down to twice a week maybe and see how that does you

Thanks, I'll try to cut down their feeding a bit more and thaw the food, but I've tried, mussles, clams,prawn and everything they are suppose to eat when I got these guys. I finally gave up after moldy food at the bottom of the tank all the time.

It might be a problem with proportion - fatty gets most of the food, the plump one less, the little guy the proper amount. You can try training the smallest to go into a net to eat and keep the others out, so you can regulate their individual diets better.

Definitely puffed up, IMO, not overweight. If they are always like that, then you need to try burping them, that's not good for them at all. There's an article in the library I believe about burping.

Read about how to burp my puffer, kind off a scary thing to try. I'll try it , but I've gotta do some thinking on how to do this. My puffer's will jump out of the tank if I take the cover off and rile them up. Just to do a water change I have to drain some water out so they can't get out before I take the cover off. The tank also sits about 5'5"'s to the top, so I have to stand on the back of my couch to reach in it.
I think the only way I'll be able to burp my fish would be to take him and some water out and do it in a large container.
Thanks for the info.

Good luck with the burping

To get them to feed on mussels prawns etc, chop some up and soak in garlic, this may need a few trials na d the syphon out any uneaten food to keep the water in good condition. They will start eating it soon enough.