My fish hasn't eaten for 6 weeks now

McSassy

McSassy

Master of my domain
Yes, 6 weeks to this day was the last time my blue spotted puffer fish ate. A good deal of the day, he is sitting in the corner or hiding behind a rock, but he gets around the tank and surfs against the vortech as well. When he is "resting" his colors fade in some areas, but when he is swimming around he is just as ever brightly and fully colored and physically looks just fine.

Could it just be old age? I've had him for nearly 4 years now...my first fish ever (betta) did the same thing towards the end of his life as well.
 
What have you been feeding him? Try some pe mysis, or chopped up fresh clam, or something extra appetizing.
 
Normally fish will actually be discolored while sleeping, that seems usual to me, but I'm not positive. I'm not very familiar with puffers. I would recommend feeding it mysis shrimp but let it soak in garlic for a bit. This will make the shrimp more appetizing to the puffer. Make sure you soak it for around 15 minutes. When fish get hungry they will face the current, because in the wild the current brings food. If he continues to face the current chances are he is very hungry. Just keep trying. Good luck!
 
I feed my fish PE mysis, krill, clam in the halfshell and formula two. I tried mixing the mysis with garlic to see if it would make a difference for him with no avail. For a little while he would come up to the food like he was about to eat it (he would always eat right out of my hand) but just not do anything...almost as if he forgot how to eat. Now he just doesn't even regard the fact that I'm putting food in the tank. My other fish are fine...so I don't think it's a disease or anything that's in the tank.

I had my betta for nearly 3 years too before he started with this behavior as well. I bought both fish as adults, so I have no way of knowing how old they were at the time of purchase.
 
Well if you ever figure it out, be sure to let us know. I recently had 2 fish do the same. A foxface that quit eating 18-19 days ago. No signs of any illness. Just stopped eating. Also, stopped moving around in the tank. It just sits in a corner with it's "stressed" coloration. Also have an achilles that stopped eating 12-13 days ago. All of a sudden it isolated itself to a small area and just swam in circles and never left the area. Both fish are in a sectioned off area of my sump now where I can give them special attention and they won't be harassed. The achilles is taking a few bites of nori each day so that's good, but the foxface continues to show no interest in food. I have had both fish for 4-6 years and have not introduced a new fish for 2+ years.
 
TripleT brings up a good point and I don't think I mentioned it in my post. I think my achilles was completely blind for several days and right now has very minimal eye-sight, although it does seem to be regaining some vision. My foxface I feel might be in the same boat.
 
Have you looked closely at his teeth? I have heard that puffers sometimes have problems with their teeth overgrowing which effects their ability to eat.
 
His vision seems to be fine...he reacts when I walk by the tank and like I said, he would come up to the food when I would put it in the tank (when it would be floating at the surface he would follow it around) and also his teeth are just fine...I think he breaks them himself every now and then on rock or something because one day they will be long and the next day they will just be gone.
 
I remember reading somewhere about Puffers and too much Krill....don't quite remember though. Could that be the case?
 
Had the same happening to me. One after another, my fish stopped eating. Absolutely no signs of sickness. First my flame, then my zebrasoma, a clown, etc. etc. All fish were bought at different LFS years apart. I could really cry. I always fed the a large variety of mixes (frost, pellets, with vitamins, garlic etc. etc.). I just don't know what to do anymore. I have only got 3 of 12 left over... ;-(
 
Well he's still alive...he was just swimming around the front of the tank and I saw him release some cloudy fluid from where he usually poops...do fish pee?

I'm so confused.
 
Well...he's still alive (hangs out in a darkish corner all day near the top of the overflow)...I really don't know what's going on.

Either he's secretly stashing away food in a cave or he's some sort of miracle fish.
 
Have you tested all of your water parameters? What are they?

What is your water change routine?

What size tank? What equipment? Do you have good water flow?

Cloudy poop doesn't sound good. I wonder if that's a sign of parasites or bacteria? Do you have a QT if you have to treat him with meds?

He's an omnivore, have you tried seaweed sheets?

Is he looking worse? Getting skinnier? Breathing heavy?

Are you absolutely positive he can see? If you put some krill on a feeding prong, and put it right in front of him, I wonder what he would do.

You might open a new thread and title it "Cloudy poop".
 
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