Porcupine Puffer Help

[sprieto]

Porcupine Puffer Help

[hr]
I have a concern for my new porcupine puffer fish I recently received.
After acclamation, and for the first day, the puffer fish seemed happy, floating and swimming near the top of the water, looking very active and mobile.
But he seemed not to want to eat any of the dry or cubed food products.
After the second day, I got him some guppies and white shrimp.
He devoured the shrimp like there was no tomorrow.
In fact, I worry he over ate since he is just a baby (about 2 1/2 inches) and he ate at least 9 shrimps.
His back got plotted (a bump on it) and I swear I saw him throw up once.
He has been laying on the bottom of the tank since, breathing very slowly, and looking lethargic.
After a day, the bump as gone down a little, and I think I also saw him spit out a rock (the day after he ate).
He is still laying on the bottom and moving around very little.
Did he just over eat and maybe he will get better?
Is there something seriously wrong with him?
How long until I try to feed him again, and with what?
Please help with any advise, I really don/t want to loose this fish.
Thank you,
SAP.

 

[who dey]

i don't have much experience with aggressive fish but sounds like he overate a bit. give him some time IMO doonnt feed him for a few days and see how he reacts. i would do some research on the porcupine's diet. He needs crunchy foods to file his teeth down. Maybe you should launch this in the aggressive fish forum, may be some experts up in there

 

[evilbob22]

You may want to check about feeding him (or your other fish) guppies. I know that goldfish are bad for saltwater predators, I wouldn't be surprised if guppies are the same way.

 

[snipe]

You dont want to feed saltwater fish freshwater anything or vise versa. It just isnt normal for them in the wild and dont have any great food value. It can also cause problems and kill the fish.

 

[mudplayerx]

If he gets better, I would suggest going to the supermarket and buying some uncooked, unseasoned seafood. It is a very cheap way to feed your critters, provided he will take food that isn't alive.

 

[sprieto]

Thanks for the advice and attention.
I hope he is just stressed out.
After 2 days of laying on the bottom he finally started swimming around last night.
This morning he was back to laying on the bottom.
I can only hope he gets better.
Thanks again for the time you took to respond.