Arthron black dog face puffer not eating

[newreef69]

Hi,

I have a blag dog face puffer that has been in my tank for about 1 1/2 week. I have never seen it eating of anything. I am afraid that it is going to starve itself to death. I had tried soaking squid, clams, krill with garlic, selcon with no successs. It is very active and swimming all over the tank. However, it is not eating and I am worry... Any advice?

 

[JHemdal]

I can think of two possibilities: 1) the fish may have some underlying health problem. 2) This species of puffer feeds preferentially on the tips of Acropora coral (among other things) - larger fish, that have become accustomed to feeding on coral in the ocean, may have a little difficulty switching over to standard aquarium fare in captivity. How big is your fish?

Did the fish go through any quarantine? Are there other fish in the tank, and are they doing well? Has it even looked at any of the food you've offered it?


Jay

 

[newreef69]

Hi Jay,
Thanks for the reply. mine is about 5" and I bought it from liveaquaria Diver's Den. So I really don't know what it had been fed with while in their holding tank.
Mine did not go thru quarantine and I have other fish in my tank... mostly tangs and one Japanese dragon eel. It doesn't seem to be picked on or anything like that. It is very active and swims from one end to the other side of the tank all day. All of my fish are doing well and have been in my tank for more than 2 years. They all are aggressive eaters. As soon as I put food in, they devour it.

 

[JHemdal]

Hopefully they ran some sort of quarantine at DiversDen (my understanding is that they don't put those fish up for sale right away, so they probably do something for them).

Could the other fish be out-competing it for the food? I'm at a loss, all I would suggest is to try some shrimp tails with the shell still on, but your eel will likely grab those up before the puffer gets to it.

Jay