Please Help!

[janbokev]

Hi can anyone please help with some advice, I have a dog faced puffer fish who at the moment is not being himself, he is just sitting at the bottom of the tank behind a rock and not eating, I can see him and he just keeps going round in circles slowly then stops and just looks at the back of tank, but he appears to be constipated as I can actually see his bottom is open but doing nothing although I can see something trying to come out. 8O
I went back to the shop I bought him from and they gave me some live baby tropical fish to help cure him, as I did not actually see him eat any of the babies, PLEASE does anyone have anyother Ideas on how to help him.
He does have very large teeth :? so something that does not involve putting my fingers near him would be very much appreciated as I'm sure he is very hungry as he has not eaten that I know of for 3 and a half days.
Thanks in advance

 

[Anonymous]

Put the puffer in a quarantine tank and treat with 1 tablespoon of epsom salts to every 5 gallons of tank water. Then try feeding the puffer slightly thawed frozen peas or a sheet of nori soaked in clam juice.
Feeder fish are not the best diet for puffers. They should be fed shrimp with the shell on, squid with the cartilage intact, mussels still in the shell etc. as well as ruffage such as the above peas and algae. They need items to grind their teeth on to keep their teeth from overgrowing.

Regards,
David Mohr

 

[janbokev]

Thankyou so much for the reply David, as I don't have a seperate tank to quarantine him in would I be ok trying him with the peas with the other fish (blue damsels, domino damsels, clown fish, brittle star fish and cleaner shrimp and an urchin) will it do anything to my water?
he also has a good time eating the hermit crabs and for his teeth and he eats something that is growing on one of the live rocks I have no idea what it is though, but he has been eating it for a few months and it just grows back, this is the first problem he has had. I feed him with frozen lance fish cockles and other mixes so he does not get board with the same thing and he also eats the legs of my brittle stars :roll: and he eats live brine shrimp.
he did however eat a tubeworms head and he seems to have been off since then, but they did tell me at the shop that this would not do him any harm.
Regards
Janet

 

[SnowManSnow]

just buy a $9 10 g tank from walmart and keep it for your q tank. i wouldnt put the ep salt in the main tank with the other fish. besides, you'll eventually need an extra tank to treat somthing or other in eventually.

B.