Are my puffers sick, they wont eat?

Question

I have 2 green spotted puffer fish. We have always fed them the little feeder gold fish (I put like 10 in the tank and they last about 1 week) and they usually eat them right up. But they havn't eaten a single one in over a week. Could something be wrong? What elses should I feed them? Please help Puffy and Blimpie!

Answer 1

You've got them on the wrong diet. Feeder goldfish are not the best food for puffers. For one, feeder fish are often disease-ridden, and also green spotted puffers actually do best on a diet comprised predominantly of crustaceans and mollusks.

Instead of feeder fish they should be given harder foods like snails, clams, krill, mussels, mysis shrimp, prawn, etc. This diet will also keep their teeth short. If you keep offering them feeder fish their teeth will get overgrown and will prevent them from eating correctly (and they'll starve).

Also, as they mature green spotted puffers require brackish water (specific gravity of 1.010-1.015), because their health will eventually deteriorate in fresh water. Attaining that level of salinity requires approximately 4 to 6 cups of salt (not tablespoons) per 10 gallons; acclimate them to that concentration over a span of a few weeks.

Your green spotted puffers will eventually require 30gals of tank volume PER puffer to coexist.

Answer 2

If you haven't been feeding your puffers snails and other crunchy foods to wear their beak/tooth down, then it has probably grown to long and they are unable to eat. You will have to consult an experienced puffer keeper, exotic fish vet, or several puffer web sites to find out how to file down the puffer beaks so that they can eat again. Do their mouths look like they are stuck open or stuck closed? Sometimes that is a sign of an overgrown puffer tooth.
http://wetwebfotos.com/talk/thread.jsp?forum=20&thread=7779

Also, most people do not suggest you feed your fish feeder goldfish, because they often carry lots of diseases. Puffers are very succeptable to disease because they are scaleless fish. So if you are wanting to feed them live fish, I would get a 10 gallon and breed some guppies or mollies in it to feed to your puffers. Mollies would be best, as green spotted puffers are brackish water fish, and so are mollies, so the mollies will live longer in their aquarium. Buying feeder fish from pet stores, especially feeder goldfish, is really risky, and at the very least you should always quarantine the feeders for a week or two before putting them in your aquarium to make sure they don't carry diseases.

Answer 3

Puffer fish can be difficult to keep, because of their strict requirements.
Firstly, they should not be eating feeder goldfish, at least not as a staple diet. They should be eating bloodworms, mussels, snails, brine shrimp (live or frozen).

Also, did you know that Green spotted puffers are brackish fish? This means that they need salt in their water. Not as much salt as in sea water, but more salt than in fresh water.
Also, you should not be keeping two puffers together. Puffers are solitary fish and the presence of other fish (including the feeder goldfish) will stress them out.

Please read up on their care:
http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/puf-nigr.htm
http://www.splutphoto.com/pierre/puffer.htm

Also read up on the proper identification becaues green spotted puffers are often mislabeled.

Be sure to keep up with weekly water changes of 20-30%, as puffers like clean water. Also make sure that your tank is big enough - each green spotted puffer should have a 20 gallon tank.

If, after correcting these problems you still have problems, or if you just have more questions, consdering joining fishforums.com. There is a member there, named BoxerMom, and she is a puffer fish guru. She can help you even more.

Answer 4

PUFFER FISH RULE