Need help with Pea puffers!

[Killerbro511]

so i bought a Pea puffer pair with their setup off marketplace and im a bit concerned about them.

I redid their tank as it was just a bare bottom (whilst keeping the filter media alive) and when i checked the parameters of the water the nitrates were over 160ppm. Even after i fully redid the tank and the only water from the previous setup was in the filter, the nitrates were still around 30pm so I believe it was much higher than that.

Other parameters after redoing are PH: 6.5, gh: 5, kh: 3, Ammonia: 0, Nitrite: 0, Nitrate: about 30ish which i''ll do daily 20% changes to try and not shock them.

So far they haven't shown any interest in eating besides randomly pecking at the rocks when there's plenty of snails and I've tried frozen bloodworms. (Actually just saw the female murk a snail i crushed before but other than that nothing)

Additionally, the female seems plump and healthy but the male seems really thin and seems to only be hiding or glass surfing with actually no appetite. What are ways that I can get him back to health and eating? He's the one i'm mainly concerned about as i've heard that males are typically thinner than females but this seems excessive (Picture). Would it be worthwhile to get grindle worms or blackworms?

This is also in Australia so i really don't want him to die because these guys were so expensive.

Cheers.

 

[Colin_T]

Make sure the water quality stays good and keep ammonia and nitrite at 0ppm and nitrate under 20ppm. If they go up, do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day until the levels are at 0ppm.

What are you feeding the fish?
You can try raw or cooked prawn. Cut some up into little bits and put one or two pieces in and let them eat it. Do this until they stop eating. Remove uneaten food to stop it causing water quality problems.

You can also offer them frozen (but defrosted) foods like brineshrimp, bloodworms and mysis shrimp. Again remove any uneaten food after feeding.

You can try live brineshrimp or mozzie larvae.

When I was collecting marine fish I used a length of cotton thread about 2 foot long and had a sewing needle at one end and tied a small knot at the other end. I put pieces of prawn over the needle and slid the prawn down the thread to the knot. I put the food in the water and held the thread and gently moved it about. This got the attention of the fish who would come and bite it. The knot stops the food sliding off too easily but the fish could pull the food off without any issues when they grabbed it. I did this until the fish were readily eating then stopped using the thread.

 

[Killerbro511]

Make sure the water quality stays good and keep ammonia and nitrite at 0ppm and nitrate under 20ppm. If they go up, do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day until the levels are at 0ppm.

What are you feeding the fish?
You can try raw or cooked prawn. Cut some up into little bits and put one or two pieces in and let them eat it. Do this until they stop eating. Remove uneaten food to stop it causing water quality problems.

You can also offer them frozen (but defrosted) foods like brineshrimp, bloodworms and mysis shrimp. Again remove any uneaten food after feeding.

You can try live brineshrimp or mozzie larvae.

When I was collecting marine fish I used a length of cotton thread about 2 foot long and had a sewing needle at one end and tied a small knot at the other end. I put pieces of prawn over the needle and slid the prawn down the thread to the knot. I put the food in the water and held the thread and gently moved it about. This got the attention of the fish who would come and bite it. The knot stops the food sliding off too easily but the fish could pull the food off without any issues when they grabbed it. I did this until the fish were readily eating then stopped using the thread.

yup, keeping a good eye on the parameters and have nitrates down to 5 now.

So far ive added snails and shrimp to their tank and the female seems to be happy trying to hunt them (and the occasional detritus worm although how successful she's been is another question) however the male doesnt seem to care. In terms of frozen ive tried bloodworms and mysis although neither really cared about those. I did do the ol wiggle the food with the tongs although the most it got was a curious look so maybe ill try your string method but prawn seems a little big for two peas so do you know any other alternatives or would i just have to cut it?
It seems like the male occasional tries to attack a snail or peck a detritus worm but almost always just gives up.

I'm going to see if I can get some live blackworms and try those as i want to keep setting my brine shrimp hatchery up again as a last resort. Do you know anywhere else i can get live food?

Many thanks!