# Porcupine Puffer Not Eating



## JPPreacher (Aug 29, 2006)

G'day folks. Hoping that somebody can help me, either with advice or pointing me in the direction where I might find some. 

Where I currently work we have a large (guestimate about 8/9 inches) Porcupine Pufferfish, Bob, in a display tank and have had for quite some time. Recently Bob has not been himself at all. For past 3 or 4 weeks he has gone completely off his food and spends most of his day sat on the bottom of the tank. This is very odd for him as he normally loves his food and loves interacting with people, he can normally be found zooming about at the top of the tank following customers and staff all day as they walk past his tank.

I am the first to admit I am no Marine expert, but I'm trying to learn everything I can and at the moment I seem to be the one taking the most interest in these things. (Prime example being everybody else noticing something up with him but myself being the only one to be doing anything about it). So I'm willing to do what ever I can to see his condition improve and learn whatever needs to be done.

I've tried to collect as much infomation as I can to help out with any advice, there are bits that I know I'm missing which I shall try and find out tomorrow. 

*Current Symptoms:
*- Not eating. There are some days recently where he shows an interest in food, does his normal routine of circling it once he's found it but then just swims off and then there are other days he takes no notice of it at all. I've been lucky to get him to eat a couple of cockles when I feed him.

- Lethargic. Where as he is normally very active and trying to keep up with everything going on around him recently he has taken to sulking on the bottom of the tank in one corner and shows no interest at all when you go to talk to him.

- Slightly glazed eyes. Pretty self explanatory here, it almost looks as he's scratched them.

- Sore on "lips". He currently has a slight red sore on his lips where it looks as if he has been rubbing them on the side of the tank.

*Water Conditions:
*Nitrite- 0,05mg/l 
Nitrat- 0.1mg/l (Not sure if wrote this down correctly, I will double check tomorrow)
Ammonia- 0.01mg/l
pH- 9.0
Salinity- Silly me I forgot to get this one, will grab it tomorrow.
Temperature- Again the simplest one and I forget it.

*Tank:
*Not 100% on the size I will check tomorrow but about 4ft x 3ft x 3 ft, but don't quote me on this, I'll get dimensions and water quantity tomorrow. 

Unfortunately the system is not standard as it is part of our main system (although it is isolated) but I will see what I can find out.

*Tank Mates:*Live Rock (Fiji)
Yellow Tang
Marron Clown
And think there's a Damsel of some variety in there as well which has completely escaped me at the moment.

*Food:*
Bob himself is fed a mixture of Cockles in shells, muscles and shrimp. Brine shrimp and Marine flake food are fed to the Tang, Clown and Damsel.

Thats all the infomation I've got at the moment. As I said those bits I know I've missed I'll try and get tomorrow and think of anything else that might help. I'm currently looking everywhere I can to try and find more infomation but anything that you can do to help me, but most importantly Bob out would be greatly appreciated. Even if yourself can't help, but know of any decent aquatic or marine forums that I could try that would be enough.

Any help at all with this will be so so useful. 
Cheers
James


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## Art_Gecko101 (May 6, 2006)

I'm afraid i cant offer you any advice myself atm as im not an aquarist, but up until a couple of months ago i worked at the london aquarium and we have a porcupine puffer. he's everyones favourite and gets SO much attention! im sure if you called then someone could give you some advice if you explained what the problem is.


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## susanamck (May 22, 2007)

not much help as turts and freshwater as my things but wishin u all the best n workin out whats wrong with bob and gettin him well again


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## biohazard156 (Nov 11, 2007)

Hiya,

Sorry to hear the puffer isn't eating well  Ideally, in a marine tank, nitrites and nitrates should be zero, these are the two things which can start to affect fish, corals, other inverts. pH should be about 8.2/8.3 so perhaps you could try to get that down as well. How are water changes being done and how often? Perhaps a few 10/20% water changes could be done to see if the levels start to go down. What test kits do you use incidentally? You SG (salinity) should be about 1.024/25 ideally. 

Are the other fish looking ok at the moment? Damsels are a PITA normally and can bully fish much bigger than them...look out for any weird behaviour like that.

As for getting him to eat...try soaking his food in some garlicy water, take out a bit of tank water, put a clove of garlic in and let the food and that steep for a bit, then put the food in. The garlic is supposed to be a stimulant to eat and has worked for many many people keeping marines.

Anna


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