Having trouble introducing new food

[themadhatter]

Oh how irritating! Just lost my whole post!

Well anyways... I recently bought a Palembang puff, who is getting on really well in his new home but i'm having a lot of trouble getting him to try new foods.

He was in the LFS for a year so is used to only having river shrimp (not gut loaded, so not great methinks). This is what he's currently eating here (gut loaded), but obviously i'm wanting to vary his diet! I've tried mussel, prawns, cockle and frozen bloodworm but he's just not interested He likes to chase his food, haha

What can I do to try and get him to eat some of the above? Or will he be ok as long as I vary the diet of the river shrimp? He ate a snail on no-feed day, but I think that was greed, lol.

Apart from being a fusspot, he's looking really perky. Found him sitting on a leaf the other day, so adorable

[eieio]

keep him just a little bit hungry!
and if an earthworm is appropriate food for a Palembang, you might give that a try

[Dadof4]

You can try soaking food in garlic and try feed earthworms,that can do the trick. In the end though you may end up using a string tied around what ever you are feeding him and making it seem "live" to get him to start to eat it.

[themadhatter]

ooh interesting... a moving wormy might catch his attention I love watching him hunt, it's great - you can almost hear the shrimp saying "oh no, please no... NO NO NO- " -puffer gulps- hahahaha.

Thanks for that I feed him every other day, and only a couple of smallish shrimp at a time, so he generally has a bit of hunger going on. Just have to persevere I suppose, stubborn little man he is

[Pufferpunk]

Have you read this?
library/feeding/problems-feeding-your-puffer/

[themadhatter]

Thanks very much Pufferpunk

I think i'm going to try dangling some food on maybe some fishing line and see how it goes - hopefully the movement should entice him. He's quite shy so if I started waving my hands around with some tweezers, I think it'll freak him out.

Got a good selection of frozen food in so i'm ready to start tempting him lol

[Dadof4]

Thanks very much Pufferpunk

I think i'm going to try dangling some food on maybe some fishing line and see how it goes - hopefully the movement should entice him. He's quite shy so if I started waving my hands around with some tweezers, I think it'll freak him out.

Got a good selection of frozen food in so i'm ready to start tempting him lol

If you do dangle food from something, please make sure it's a piece of cotton thread. Cotton is digestible if he decides to take some string with a bite, fishing line can get caught in the teeth or rub across a lip causing cuts. Synthetic threads can cause digestive issues too.

[themadhatter]

^ Thanks very much, didn't know that, but luckily dont have any line so had to use some soft thread anyways.

So far still being stubborn, so just trying to persevere with him, haha. Bit worried about giving an earthworm from the garden... like if any ferts/weedkillers have been used? Don't wan't to risk it. Can you buy earthworms from places like tackle shops?