Puffer fish won't eat

[Luke markovina]

Hello, yesterday I picked up a congo spotted puffer or schoutedeni puffer. yesterday I tried feeding him frozen bloodworms and frozen clams, but he wouldnt eat anything. I think I managed to get a peak at him eating a small pond snail, but when I put more in the tank he wouldn't go for them even when they were right in front of him. I did some research and heard that usually puffers don't eat when you first get them since they are still acclimating to the tank, but I was wondering in the case that he doesn't eat tonight what could I do to motivate him to eat? He is in a 55 gal tank with a group of 7 rosy barbs and after testing the water everything seems perfectly fine. It also has over double filtration needed for a 55. could the rosy barbs be scaring him from eating? if so I have another 50 gal or my 75 gal I could move them to without any problems. Thank you in advance!

 

[JxsPxxle]

Hello, yesterday I picked up a congo spotted puffer or schoutedeni puffer. yesterday I tried feeding him frozen bloodworms and frozen clams, but he wouldnt eat anything. I think I managed to get a peak at him eating a small pond snail, but when I put more in the tank he wouldn't go for them even when they were right in front of him. I did some research and heard that usually puffers don't eat when you first get them since they are still acclimating to the tank, but I was wondering in the case that he doesn't eat tonight what could I do to motivate him to eat? He is in a 55 gal tank with a group of 7 rosy barbs and after testing the water everything seems perfectly fine. It also has over double filtration needed for a 55. could the rosy barbs be scaring him from eating? if so I have another 50 gal or my 75 gal I could move them to without any problems. Thank you in advance!

When you first buy puffers, always wait 3-4 days before feeding them for the first time. The fish will be used to eating live food and to move them to frozen food you need to make sure they are very hungry. If you leave it 3-4 days then feed it for the first time it will be very hungry and will learn to accept the frozen blood worms and clams. However, if you feed the puffer straight away it will only eat live, not frozen and thawed, and will be a picky eater.

 

[Luke markovina]

When you first buy puffers, always wait 3-4 days before feeding them for the first time. The fish will be used to eating live food and to move them to frozen food you need to make sure they are very hungry. If you leave it 3-4 days then feed it for the first time it will be very hungry and will learn to accept the frozen blood worms and clams. However, if you feed the puffer straight away it will only eat live, not frozen and thawed, and will be a picky eater.

Thank you so much. I’ll wait a bit longer and then try to get it on the frozen foods and maybe even freeze dried krill if possible. For now Should I just do small water changes daily to help prevent any disease that might take over while it’s not eating?

 

[FallenPepper]

My puffers love frozen krill,snails, and live crickets. Try using live crickets then after awhile start buying dead ones and maybe grubs as well. Used this to get my spotted congo to eat prepared foods.

 

[JxsPxxle]

Thank you so much. I’ll wait a bit longer and then try to get it on the frozen foods and maybe even freeze dried krill if possible. For now Should I just do small water changes daily to help prevent any disease that might take over while it’s not eating?

There would be no harm in doing this, but I would just stick to your normal routine for the tank. Make sure water quality is perfect for the fish and when you introduce food in 3-4 days you should have no problems. Also these puffers need to grind their beak down so it is important that they have some live snails in their diet.

 

[Luke markovina]

There would be no harm in doing this, but I would just stick to your normal routine for the tank. Make sure water quality is perfect for the fish and when you introduce food in 3-4 days you should have no problems. Also these puffers need to grind their beak down so it is important that they have some live snails in their diet.

yah i my other 4 tanks are infested with snails, so i will use those as breeding grounds for feeding snails. Thank you so much!

 

[JxsPxxle]

yah i my other 4 tanks are infested with snails, so i will use those as breeding grounds for feeding snails. Thank you so much!

That is exactly what I do, I build colonies of different snails in my tanks.

 

[Luke markovina]

That is exactly what I do, I build colonies of different snails in my tanks.

Thank you guys for all the help. its day two and he started eating frozen blood worms. next im trying frozen calms and krill. how often should i feed him, from what I heard its every other day, but so many people told me different things I don't know what to believe.

 

[vanalisa]

yah i my other 4 tanks are infested with snails, so i will use those as breeding grounds for feeding snails. Thank you so much!

I ended up starting a separate Snail Bubbler Bucket, bubbler because it has an inexpensive foam filter and air pump.
I have wrangled a large majority of "pest"
snails for the bucket, and with regular wrangling and Assassin snails the population in my other tanks is manageable.
Oh, I forgot to mention, the Bubbler Bucket is where I keep the food for my Dwarf Pea Puffer, Niblet!

 

[JxsPxxle]

Thank you guys for all the help. its day two and he started eating frozen blood worms. next im trying frozen calms and krill. how often should i feed him, from what I heard its every other day, but so many people told me different things I don't know what to believe.

I feed mine every day but a smaller portion, it doesn’t matter much really as long as he is fed a sufficient amount. If it’s only the second day I would recommend every other day because he will be hungrier and more likely to eat the food.

 

[Luke markovina]

I feed mine every day but a smaller portion, it doesn’t matter much really as long as he is fed a sufficient amount. If it’s only the second day I would recommend every other day because he will be hungrier and more likely to eat the food.

Okay so I have an update. I was able to hand feed it 3 small freeze dried krill which he couldn't stop eating, but we have a new problem. So basically I saw some white spots on his fins which indicated to me that he has early stages of ich. I just did my water change and removed the carbon from both filters and treated the tank with some trusty ich-X. How long do you think It should take for the ich to clear at such an early stage. He most likely has ich because he has been through a lot. first he was wildly caught and shipped to my lfs and a day or two after arrival i showed up and transported him an extra hour. Im just glad he has been dealing pretty well under the circumstances

 

[JxsPxxle]

Okay so I have an update. I was able to hand feed it 3 small freeze dried krill which he couldn't stop eating, but we have a new problem. So basically I saw some white spots on his fins which indicated to me that he has early stages of ich. I just did my water change and removed the carbon from both filters and treated the tank with some trusty ich-X. How long do you think It should take for the ich to clear at such an early stage. He most likely has ich because he has been through a lot. first he was wildly caught and shipped to my lfs and a day or two after arrival i showed up and transported him an extra hour. Im just glad he has been dealing pretty well under the circumstances

Could you attach a picture?

 

[Colin_T]

Don't use chemicals to treat puffer fish because they are sensitive.

If you need to treat whitespot, raise the water temperature to 30C (86F) and keep it there for 2 weeks. Then reduce the temperature.

Do a huge (80-90%) water change and complete gravel clean before raising the temperature.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Clean the filter before raising the temperature. Wash filter media/ materials in a bucket of tank water and re-use them.

Increase aeration to maximise oxygen levels.

 

[FallenPepper]

Use chems puffers can handle it. Best bet it doing baths in chems metroplex is great just get a half gallon bucket put some on his food and leave him in it for about 2 hours with an air stone. Oh and keep the bucket in the tank so the temps the same. This saved my amazon puffer tank when I was battling ick for a month and a half. I lost so many tbh and I hate to say that but this saved the remaining of my amazon puffers. Temps and salt can only do so much

 

[FallenPepper]

When I get out of work I'll look though my puffer notebook and tell you what I did exactly and what I used along with when. Puffers are very sensitive to ick and parasites especially if they're wild caught. I take it you haven't deparasited as well?