i baught a green spotted puffer and it wont eat any thing it is about half an inch long i have ownd a couple in the past and have not had this problem befor is this commen do to stress or not and what can i do to get it to eat
gsp not eating
- Thread starter duster1971
- Start date
when did you get him?, what are your water peramiters? nitrate,ph,Ammonia,nitrite, SG,
when i first got mine, i had to get a squer and put a shrimp in the end and wiggle it to trigger his hunting reflex. i allways keep my nitates under 10 ppm by water changes and lava rock(fresh from oregon cascades= no iron) and for the bio filter, so i never gat any ammonia readings or nitrite. i use crushed coral and graval with marine salt mix. the indicator of water quality and mood is the belly of the GSP day time its white and night after he eats he gets dark to hide. now i will just drop snails, shrimp, crickets, and frozen silver sides. o ya do you feed him snails i have a 10 G tank just for breeding pesky snails, i went to pestmart and ask for a bunch of there snails and now i have so many in the breeder tank, i over feed them with algea wafers and they took off. i feed him snails about 2x a week to keep his beak trimed down. do you feed yor puffer snails? the other thing is did you get your puffer from wallmart? if so they dont know how to take care of them and are full of parisites. i orderd mine online, and placed it in a SG.005 from fresh water hoping to kill parisites that could be in them, because a nother reason for perisites are all GSPs are wild harvested from the wild. so you just need to trouble shoot all these things and he should be ok. hope this helps
when i first got mine, i had to get a squer and put a shrimp in the end and wiggle it to trigger his hunting reflex. i allways keep my nitates under 10 ppm by water changes and lava rock(fresh from oregon cascades= no iron) and for the bio filter, so i never gat any ammonia readings or nitrite. i use crushed coral and graval with marine salt mix. the indicator of water quality and mood is the belly of the GSP day time its white and night after he eats he gets dark to hide. now i will just drop snails, shrimp, crickets, and frozen silver sides. o ya do you feed him snails i have a 10 G tank just for breeding pesky snails, i went to pestmart and ask for a bunch of there snails and now i have so many in the breeder tank, i over feed them with algea wafers and they took off. i feed him snails about 2x a week to keep his beak trimed down. do you feed yor puffer snails? the other thing is did you get your puffer from wallmart? if so they dont know how to take care of them and are full of parisites. i orderd mine online, and placed it in a SG.005 from fresh water hoping to kill parisites that could be in them, because a nother reason for perisites are all GSPs are wild harvested from the wild. so you just need to trouble shoot all these things and he should be ok. hope this helps
no snails i feed small cray fish frome local bait shop and got him from lfs and they treat all thir fish for parasites i just got him two days ago and baught the food they were feeding to help with adjustment to the new tank nitrate is 0ppm and amonia 0ppm,ph is 7.0 neutral i have him in a brackish tank and have tryed to feed scalops and shrimp to no avail he is changing collare just like my other puffer light to dark the temp of the tank is79 deg every thing is perfect for the fish he just rfuses to eat he swims around and acts happy verry pesonable thats y i got him just want to get him to eat and not starve to death more advice plaes
if you just got him, dont worry too much he must still be adjusting. you should try to feed him with the light turned off. get a shiscobob stick or chop stick or even some fishing line. the idea is to make the food seem alive, by making it move i feed all my preditory fish this way. also make sure the food is smaller than the puffer so he has the confedence to atack it. was he in fresh water in the LFS? if so his kidnys could also be addjusting to the change in salinity, did you use "instant ocean mix" and if you use cruched coral substrate it will also raise your PH which is good for GSPs
i use coralife marine salt and ocian direct sand mixed with black gravel and he has started to eat a little not as much as he shuld one or 2 peices of krill abot 1cm in length i will try the fishing line trick and he was in a brackish tank with a lower salt content at the lfs
what might also help in the long run is if you coral substrate, to not inly raise the PH and KH but also is a great place for the bio filter to live. he will come around.