Congo Puffer mouth problems!

Skyeboy

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So i have had this guy for a year now. He used to beg for food. Eats pellets,shrimp, snails when he wants to. For past few weeks he acts like he wants to eat but can't. I thought it may be his teeth so i used clove oil to sedate him. Looked at his teeth and they weten't that bad. I trimmed them a little. It almost seems like there is to much skin around his mouth. I also took notice inside his mouth there is like a white thing that was soft and inflated. Almost like a small ballon behind his toungue. It seemed to deflate and inflate. He has no problems swimming and water parameters are fine. Ill attach pic but it is hard to see. Any ideas? I don't want to lose him.

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Fat Homer

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How long is your puffer length wise? Coz just speculating here but i wonder if its due to his age???

Also, how long hasn’t he eaten for and how often do you feed your puffer???
 
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Skyeboy

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I would say he is about 3 1/2" long. Do you think he is old? I used to feed him once a day. He hasn't eaten in about 2 weeks. Even tried blood worms. He acts like he wants to eat but seems like he can't.
 

Fat Homer

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I would say he is about 3 1/2" long. Do you think he is old? I used to feed him once a day. He hasn't eaten in about 2 weeks. Even tried blood worms. He acts like he wants to eat but seems like he can't.
At 3.5” i’d say hes close to full size, maybe has 1-2” left to grow possibly...

Anyway, if in the past you fed him daily, he could be going on a random hunger strike atm... so i would keep an eye on his stomach area and make sure its not sunken in... as long as its still flat / semi rounded hes probably just not hungry...

However, if it starts sinking in quite badly and still wont eat, then i would be looking at if there could be other problems with your puffer by chance...
 
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Skyeboy

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He is skinny and starting to get sunken in. I put blood worms and pellets in tonight and he circled it like he wanted to eat but just couldn't it seems like he has to much loose skin around his mouth and it stopping his mouth from operating normally.
 

Fat Homer

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While i normally dont advise going live, if he continues on like this, maybe try giving him some gut loaded and first quarantined live food to see if he has any change of heart towards the food?

Or before even that, you could try changing his diet up to defrosted frozen foods soaked in a bit of kens garlic juice or something similar to entice him to eat / try new foods...

Coz if your guy is eating pellets im impressed, coz my old congo wouldnt get near the things and only accepted live to start then weened off onto defrosted frozen foods such as scallop meat, prawns etc...
 

Skyeboy

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Yea he used to go nuts for the hikari sinking wafers. Tonight he got excited for them again but just acts like he physically can't eat. I don't know what to do for him. Even when he breathes you can see his skin on his mouth go in and out.
 

Fat Homer

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Any chance you could make a video showing the symptoms as well as the mouth with the extra skin???
 
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