Dogface Puffer stopped eating

[skr791346]

Dogface puffer I had for about two years stopped eating all of a sudden. Before, I used to feed several chunks of LRS Chunky daily and he ate voraciously.

About three weeks ago, I ran out of LRS Chunky and decided to feed him semi-thawed out chunks of LRS Fish Frenzy for a few days while I had time to pick up more LRS Chunky.

He ate Fish Frenzy well for a few days but soon he stopped accepting it. Since then, he's been rejecting LRS Chunky for almost three weeks. Not implying that FF caused it but noting that it's the only thing different I did recently right before he stopped eating.

Even when I try to hand feed him, he would bite into the food but spit it back out. One new behavior I noticed is he keeps coming up to the surface of water bobbing up and down to spit water. He still seems full of energy, swimming against the glass. I am noticing that he keeps bumping into things and I don't think he did that before.

Anyone have any idea what could be going on? Attaching a few pics of his teeth but not sure if they need to be filed down.

I was thinking of trying live shrimp, krill or clams but not too optimistic.

 

[Gareth elliott]

Try some live fresh foods. Clams would be my first try, if not clams try adding some small live crabs.

 

[Humblefish]

Any new livestock introduced recently?

 

[skr791346]

No new livestock introduced. Just tried live clams and completely ignored. Thinking of trying live shrimp or crab next.

 

[skr791346]

So I took him to an aquatic vet. Nothing conclusive after xrays, gill sample & skin scrapes; all looked clean and good. They could not get a blood sample to test. Also got his teeth filed down as well. Vet recommended trying Triple Sulfa but I don't think that will do much. Poor guy looks even worse after the trip and now just sits at the bottom.

I've been reading other threads on possible food poisoning; Fish Frenzy I fed him for a few days before he stopped eating, I left the freezer door open overnight by mistake and semi-thawed, then refroze. According to another reefer who reached out to Hikari after a similar incident, Hikari stated that it's possible for amino acid to turn into toxins after food is thawed out then refrozen? In the case that I'm dealing with some toxin related health issue, what would be the next best step to treat?

 

[Gareth elliott]

Admittedly its been a long time since organic chemistry, but unsure how an amino acid becomes a toxin? There are toxic amino acids, like those produced by some bacteria. And as the bacteria population increases they can produce these toxins. A human analogy would be Listeriolysin O( a lipid i think though) But doubtful an overnight of partial frozen state would have produced enough bacteria toxins.


There are some bacteria that can infect at very low population levels, that perhaps an antibiotic like triple sulfa would help?