Retarded Puffer?

HooDude

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Hey,

I have a pufferfish that I finally brought home, and I have been concerned over his behavior.

He goes back and forth across the back of the tank with his nose to the glass every waking moment, and then he goes to sleep at night in his cave.

He won't break his concentration on surfing the rear wall of th tank to eat any of the brine shrimp I give him.

Is this normal? Is he just retarded? All he does is follow the glass all day and not eat. He's been doing it for 3 days, what is wrong w/ him?
 
Well the puffer has finally stopped following his reflection in the glass after 3 days, now he's back at the front of the tank, but I still cant get him to eat.

Whenever I pour in brine-shrimp he just sucks one in, chews it for a second and then spits it out. What am I doing wrong? The brine shrimp thawed when I drove them home, but I froze them again. Would live be better? I have brine shrimp eggs...

I dunno man, what can I do? I left 2 feeder comets in with him, he's been chewing their fins, hopefully there is some food value in that. I'll bring him some tiny snails tommorow sometime.

Any feedback? At all? nobody?
 
Ive never kept puffers so i know almost nothing about them but could it just be stress from the move? Some of the larger or more intelligent species of fish dont like being moved,even if it is to a better tank than the one they had before,my S.lima didnt feed for 5 weeks after i had to move the tank once.
Try leaving the lights off and leaving the fish to settle into its new surroundings for a few days before adding anymore food and see if that helps.
 
HooDude,

Toss the shrimp out! If it's thawed and then been re-frozen it will be bad or possibly even toxic. That is why most stores wrap it in newspaper, kind of like an insulation to keep it frozen on the drive home. That is probably why your puffer is sucking it in and then spitting it back out, probably doesn't taste "right" to him. Go out and pick some more up, and take it home right away, and right into the freezer.
 
I was thinking it could be stress too. Also I agree about the light. keep it off for awhile until he gets used to the surrounding. He should be fine in matter of days. Keep us updated. Is he the only fish in the tank right now?
 
I have a single dwarf puffer now, and he doesnt really like anything that is dead... It has to move to get him interested. I put snails in the tank, they dissapear. They are nearly the size of his head, but they are gone! I have one in there about his size and he cant do too much to it, every once in a while he tries, but he is not sucessful. I put two ghost shrimp in there with him and he picked on them for a couple days about 3 days after they "moved in" he "moved them out". both of them. Dead, and one was nearly twice the size of him... :eek:

Try the live idea, and see what he does. does your LFS have ghost/glass shrimp?
 
Not sure how incredibly nutritious this is, but I gave my puffers live wax worms, or ripped the skin off em so it was just their guts an gave em that. :sick: They loved it and would eat those when nothing else would get down! Maybe try that? Hope you get him eating. Puffers kick butt and I can never get mine to survive. :-( Good luck! :thumbs:
 
Hi HooDude

The pacing behavior is probably caused by stress as mentioned by CFC, as he is back at the front of the tank he is starting to adapt to his new home.
What kind of puffer do you have? My Dwarfs started out eating shrimp and bloodworm (frozen) but now ignore the shrimp all together. Glad to hear you're getting to get a supply of snails for him to keep his teeth worn down but you might as well remove the feeder fish, they'll do nothing but get picked on and pollute the water.
If this is a larger species of puffer you may need to look into getting some shellfish for them to eat.

Good luck with the puffer, let us know how he gets on
 
Hey PufferPack,

The puffer is doing better, oh and btw, this is a Dwarf FW Puffer

I've been feeding him bloodworms, he eats 3 or 4, but it looks as if he gets the casing stuck on his teeth. He eats one, then spits out the casing, and then goes backwards while seemingly trying to spit out the clear tube-y casing thing. How many bloodworms should he eat? I usually pop out a cube into a cup with some tank water and just give him a few once a day in the evening, and then feed the rest to my 2 chocolate ryukin. Should I be feeding him more? And where can I get ghost shrimp???

He stopped his pacing, and now is acting normally again. Are my shrimp bad because they thawed? Oh and what kind of light spectrum would he like the best? I have the option of putting in a Marine-Glo bulb, which is pure Actinic spectrum, but I think it would fry the plants... I don't suppose he cares about light. Anything else I can do to really improve her (its female) morale? What makes a puffer really happy? Caves? Rocks? I can't seem to do anything about my pH which is stuck at 9.0, but shes ok living in it so far...

Will they eat dried bloodworms?

Sorry if this post is disorganised... :*)

HooDude
 
Hi HooDude


Glad to hear that the little girl is doing better :D

How many bloodworms should he eat? I usually pop out a cube into a cup with some tank water and just give him a few once a day in the evening, and then feed the rest to my 2 chocolate ryukin. Should I be feeding him more? And where can I get ghost shrimp???
Sounds like you are doing fine on the feeding. I use their belly shape as a feeding indicator, I try to regulate their feeding so that they are always a little bit plump (they get really fat and lumpy after eating, but by the time I feed them again they are plesently plump). Mine will gorge themselves on as much as they can get, so I have to be careful not to overfeed (they can get constipated and die), but they all seem to take the bloodworms in, then spit them out 2 or 3 times before eating them.
I buy my ghost shrimp at the lfs whenever I see them , about 50 cents each, but the puffers don't always eat them, sometimes they just kill them and move on leaving dead shrimp all over the tank.

Are my shrimp bad because they thawed?

I wouldn't trust them, they are probably bad :X

Oh and what kind of light spectrum would he like the best? I have the option of putting in a Marine-Glo bulb, which is pure Actinic spectrum, but I think it would fry the plants... I don't suppose he cares about light
I find they like different types of light at different times, I have a 15 watt light bulb on one side of the tank and a blue bulb on the other side, sometimes they will hang out on the bright side, sometimes in shadow.

Anything else I can do to really improve her (its female) morale? What makes a puffer really happy? Caves? Rocks? I can't seem to do anything about my pH which is stuck at 9.0, but shes ok living in it so far...

As Elisabeth said, definately give her a cave, or a few caves, some broad leafed plants (plastic are fine) and maybe a nice piece of driftwood. I find Dwarfs like to have many different places to hide or sleep. You might even want to get her a couple of friends. And something else you could try is get her a toy, I use odd plant parts floating freely in the tank and my puffers play in them all the time, they ride them swirking through the current...looks like great fun.

ph of 9.0 is pretty high, but puffers are pretty forgiving of water parameters, as long as it's clean.

Will they eat dried bloodworms?

Probably not, if it don't wiggle or squirm they are not interrested usually. In a pinch you could soak some dried bloodworms in water before adding them, so that they swirl around in the tank rather than float, and she might eat them.

HTH
 
Puffer is doing well,

I think i'm going to go looking around the neighbourhood tonight for some nice rocks. A lot of rich houses decorate their yards will things like lava rock...

;)
 
Pufferpack sure does know alot about puffers! Glad to hear your puffer keeps getting better and make sure you boil the ricks before putting them in the tank.
 

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