Dragon Puffer fish is not eating

Hello everyone! My husband and I were sold this cute little puffer yesterday, from our research we have concluded he is a Poa Palembangensis or “Dragon” puffer. At the store we were told he eats bloodworms and small shrimps and we were told to keep him in our cichlids tank (100 gallon) he was in a tank with an Arrowana. We have tried feeding him twice now (this morning & last night) and he has not eaten yet so I’m a bit concerned for his well being. I’m pretty positive he snapped my favorite kuhli loach “mom” in half (I cried). Anyway if anyone has any suggestions for food or care please let us know

 

Sorry about your khuli.. could it be he may have taken a chunk and isn’t hungry yet or possibly still settling into the new tank. Sorry I can’t be more help but just a couple thoughts

 

That puffer needs a tank of its own. You need to feed it clams/ food items with hard shells becasue it's beak grows, and you need to keep it worn down. If the teeth grow too large it will make it unable to it and it will inevitably starve.

Edit- Also be careful handling it. It is poisonous.

 

That puffer needs a tank of its own. You need to feed it clams/ food items with hard shells becasue it's beak grows, and you need to keep it worn down. If the teeth grow too large it will make it unable to it and it will inevitably starve.

Edit- Also be careful handling it. It is poisonous.

Tetraodon palembangensis (Humpback Puffer) — Seriously Fish

Taking him back to the fish store, a little bummed they sold him to us in the first place. Thanks for the info !

 

Taking him back to the fish store, a little bummed they sold him to us in the first place. Thanks for the info !

They are very cool fish irregardless, if you ever have an decent sized empty tank open, a puffer servers very well as a water puppy.

 

puffers are awesome fish but stubborn eater and must be taken care of their teeth like the previous post states. Most of them will only eat live food and will literally starve themselves if not given live food such as snails, worms, and other live food. good call returning him unless you really know how to care for them they are not recommended for most keepers.

 

Yea definitely didn’t have a tank free that was big enough and didn’t have the knowledge to give him the care he truly needed. Maybe in the future once my husband and I are more acquainted, my husband thought he was super cute and cool. Also read puffers are poisonous and we have a three year old who is involved with caring for our fish so it was a bit of a concern.

 

Yes puffers are really cool watching them hunt and just hover around. I personally want to get dwarf puffers but that plan was postponed cause my mollies decided to start a family so now have to wait till i can rehome them and then maybe get myself some dwarf puffers.

 

Regarding the poisonous aspect of pufferfish.

In the wild pufferfish (and other species that produce tetrodotoxin) bioaccumulate the toxin from their diets. Pufferfish that are in captivity are highly unlikely to have access to the bacteria that create the toxin. Some research was done a while ago and when they tested some captive specimens they didn't show any tetrodotoxin.

 

Regarding the poisonous aspect of pufferfish.

In the wild pufferfish (and other species that produce tetrodotoxin) bioaccumulate the toxin from their diets. Pufferfish that are in captivity are highly unlikely to have access to the bacteria that create the toxin. Some research was done a while ago and when they tested some captive specimens they didn't show any tetrodotoxin.

Reading up on this topic, which is actually quite interesting I think tetrodoxin is produced by bacteria that live in the pufferfish, not gained through diet?

 

Reading up on this topic, which is actually quite interesting I think tetrodoxin is produced by bacteria that live in the pufferfish, not gained through diet?

The bacteria come from marine shellfish and are accumulated/cultured in the puffer. Freshwater puffers don't produce tetrodotoxin though, the ones that are poisonous use a different type.

 

The bacteria come from marine shellfish and are accumulated/cultured in the puffer. Freshwater puffers don't produce tetrodotoxin though, the ones that are poisonous use a different type.

I'm fairly sure mbu puffers and hairy puffers produce some sort of toxin,

Tetraodon baileyi (Hairy Puffer) — Seriously Fish.

Tetraodon palembangensis (Humpback Puffer) — Seriously Fish

Boths these profiles specify that they produce a toxin.

 

I'm fairly sure mbu puffers and hairy puffers produce some sort of toxin,

Tetraodon baileyi (Hairy Puffer) — Seriously Fish.

Tetraodon palembangensis (Humpback Puffer) — Seriously Fish

Boths these profiles specify that they produce a toxin.

To me those seem more like copy-pasted factoids about what puffers are known for in general. They don't eat hairy puffers in Japan. Purely freshwater puffers (mbu are not "true" freshwater fish) have been found to produce saxitoxin instead of tetrodotoxin.

Eating habits: are we safe to consume freshwater puffer fish from the Amazon region in Brazil?

 

I had to look into this because I was afraid my cats might eat my puffersead:

 

Purely freshwater puffers (mbu are not "true" freshwater fish) have been found to produce saxitoxin instead of tetrodotoxin.

Iḿ fairly sure mbu are freshwater? They come from the amazon basin.

So even if they don't produce tetrodotoxin they still produce a toxin and should be handled with care....?

Also seriouslyfish is a fairly reliable website so I don't know where the copy paste facts came in.

 

In the wild pufferfish (and other species that produce tetrodotoxin) bioaccumulate the toxin from their diets. Pufferfish that are in captivity are highly unlikely to have access to the bacteria that create the toxin. Some research was done a while ago and when they tested some captive specimens they didn't show any tetrodotoxin.

I also did a little digging on this, you are actually right to a certain degree-

The puffers to obtain the toxin from bacteria and store it- but they keep it and store it to use as a defense. So captive, sourced from the wild puffers do contain toxins, BUT

Any captive bred puffers will not contain this toxin as long as they are not fed any foods that contain TTX, and as long as they have no contact with foods containing TTX, they should not harbor the toxin.

So I was wrong in a certain part, I apologize for not digging a little further.

 

Iḿ fairly sure mbu are freshwater? They come from the amazon basin.

So even if they don't produce tetrodotoxin they still produce a toxin and should be handled with care....?

Also seriouslyfish is a fairly reliable website so I don't know where the copy paste facts came in.

Yeah in my original post I just said they don't produce tetrodotoxin, just a different toxin. That paragraph about tetrodotoxin in SF is literally copied and pasted on every pufferfish species on the site, even ones known not to produce it so it's probably intended to be more of a general fun fact/warning and not specific to the species.

Also mbus come from central Africa, not the amazon basin and frequently venture into brackish water, meaning it's possible they're ingesting marine animals carrying the bacteria that produce tetrodotoxin.

 

I have a good solution - don't eat your puffer, you'll be ok

 

Yeah in my original post I just said they don't produce tetrodotoxin, just a different toxin. That paragraph about tetrodotoxin in SF is literally copied and pasted on every pufferfish species on the site, even ones known not to produce it so it's probably intended to be more of a general fun fact/warning and not specific to the species.

Also mbus come from central Africa, not the amazon basin and frequently venture into brackish water, meaning it's possible they're ingesting marine animals carrying the bacteria that produce tetrodotoxin.

My point was that even if they do produce a different toxin that they are still poisonous and should be handled with care

I was wrong about the mbu's origin, I was mixing it up with a different pufferfish. Sorry.

 

You shouldn’t handle your puffer. It’s us that can hurt them as they don’t have scales. It’s poisonous if you eat them which you wouldn’t do. Be careful many are sold as freshwater and they are not. Pea puffers are always freshwater. As are Amason although I prefer the Green spotted which unfortunately are sold as fresh but are not. They need to be migrated to brackish. Learned that the hard way. Awesome fish very personable. Also relatively small as adult vs some larger puffer breeds. Pea puffers look like GSP only mini. they should be in my opinion by themselves.