Spotted Puffer Advise - Help

[atrobins]

First off I would like to thank everyone for their time and effort. I'm pretty new to this hobby and really am enjoying learning about marine life. I have a 40 Gal tank with Fish and Live Rock (main tank and Refug setup). Tank is about 4 months old. I only have two fish, a Clown Fish (2 months in tank) and the Spotted Puffer (3 weeks in tank) . I also have some snails and small hermit crabs. All of my water parameters look good (A-0, Ni-0, Na-0, pH-8.0, Sal-1.023, phos-0). The problem started a few days ago with the puffer starting to hide under a large rock. I noticed when feeding (frozed brine shrimp) he would eat the shrimp but spit them back out. As of today he is staying under the rock on his side and is breathing heavy. He does not appear to have any signs of physical problems or disease other than the breathing. I'm at a loss as to what the next step should be. I could pull him from the tank but I do not want to stress him out if there is better advise out there. Also the clown fish shows no signs of any problems. Thanks again.

 

[melosu58]

I`m assuming you are talking about this one

Saltwater Aquarium Fish for Marine Aquariums: Spotted Puffer Hawaii

Does he have any salt sprinkles like spots on him? It could almost be anything from what you have described. As far as eating I would feed a piece of shrimp and not something as small as brine. It might be too late though.

 

[atrobins]

Thanks for the reply. I worked him out from under the rock. No signs of ick that I can tell. He does look thinner and seems to be struggling quite a bit to move around. The problem with feeding is that the clown fish finishes off everything before he gets a chance to take a look. Should I just pull him out and put him in a separate container so that he could have a chance of eating?

 

[atrobins]

And Sorry yes he is a "Hawaii"

 

[melosu58]

I`m thinking it is lack of eating. Maybe you can put a piece of shrimp on a kobob stick and try to see if he`ll eat.

 

[Jayinked]

I have two of the spoted puffers, I feed them krill or silversides,they will also eat live feeders or ghost shrimp . hope he makes it

 

[roka64]

You will need to feed him something with a hard shell to keep his fused "teeth" from growing out too far, inhibiting his ability to eat.