Red Eye Puffer

[newtopuffers]

I bought two red eye puffers (male & female) yesterday and compared to their levels of activity in the fish shop (and compared to what i've read about them) they are very very lazy. I'm concerned that they may not be well, alternatively I imagine they could just be in a bit of shock and getting used to their new environs. The male spends most of his time (90% of time) hiding and barely swims around except to chase the female away if she gets too close. The female spends about 60% either hiding to or in one spot either on the substrate or under the filter.

In addition they barely eaten anything at all...i've tried frozen as well as live bloodworms and also mussels and they're completely disinterested. The guy at the shop says they may be a few days settling in...could this be the reason for their odd behaviour?

btw...the tank and water conditions are all ok...have checked levels repeatedly

Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[Puffdaddy]

Yes this kind of behavior is typical with puffers in new surroundings. It may be 4-5 days before normal behavior resumes.
Also puffers a notorious for spending long periods of time sitting on the substrate.
Is your tank fully cycled? A tank must be cycled before you add any kind of puffer, they are a sensitive species.

As for feeding, try snails they are a puffers favorite food and essential part of there diet (to keep teeth trimmed). Otherwise they can eat a wide variety of foods. Snails, krill, shrimp, ghost shrimp, blood worms, insects, worms, zooplankton, daphnia, meal worms, small crickets. This is just some of the foods. Keep trying different stuff till they take to something, then feed them that for a week or two. After that try mixing it up, you will most likely find out they well try to eat anything that enters the tank. I had some Red Eyes years ago that started out the same way. I could not get them to eat for the life of me, and then finally on the 3rd day I threw a hand full of ghost shrimp in the tank. After the puffers noticed them it was all over, they were eating machines from another world. Hope this helps.