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Frustration with Congo puffer picky eating

Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2012 11:20 am
by Donna_G
I can't get him to eat anything but river shrimp!!!! He recognises the net I use and gets very excited, even goes in the net and eats the shrimp before I can release them. So I decided to switch to earthworms. He got excited, ended up in the net but completely ignored the worm!!!!!

This has been happening every night, I even dangled the worm in the tank with my fingers(above water). The worms can't do anymore, they wiggle, they climb over him and almost put theirselves in his mouth :D

I would really appreciate some suggestions as to what to do, as not sure if a diet of just shrimps is healthy for him.

Re: Frustration with Congo puffer picky eating

Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2012 11:24 am
by bertie 83
As long as you are gutfilling the shrimp with bloodworm and veggies etc they will do just fine till he decides to eat other things, just keep at it he will come round

Re: Frustration with Congo puffer picky eating

Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2012 12:44 pm
by Pufferpunk
You've got to let him get hungry. Mine only gets fed 2x/week, since he's such a sedentary fish. After he's nice & hungry, take a shrimp tail & bounce it in front of his face on the end of a thread. You need TONS of patience.

Re: Frustration with Congo puffer picky eating

Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 2:43 pm
by Donna_G
I've been beaten by my puffer :? He's way more stubborn than me :shock: I gave in last night and fed him some river shrimp as it had been nearly 2 weeks of me dangling worms near him. Boy was he happy, he gloated for ages after :lol:
What else can I do, how long is too long for him not to eat? And where have all the fishmongers gone? All I've found in the shops so far are cooked prawns :(

Re: Frustration with Congo puffer picky eating

Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 10:56 pm
by Terrance
Keep trying. Leave the worm in the tank for 1/2 hour with the lights off. I used to let the worm crawl all over my congo's face lol! He finally took a bite after doing it a few times.

Re: Frustration with Congo puffer picky eating

Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 6:12 am
by Donna_G
Drum roll please!!! He ate some king prawn :mwave: I cut it into 4 pieces and was waving 1 about with the feeding tong, only took him a couple of minutes before striking. Am gonna leave worms for a while as maybe he just doesn't like them :shock:
He ate just under half of the prawn, his underside had quite a lump. Is this enough? Do I need to soak the food with vitamins? What make?
Sorry for all the questions, there's not a huge amount of info about Congo's on the net
Thanks :D

Re: Frustration with Congo puffer picky eating

Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 7:21 am
by bertie 83
Yes definately soak in vitamins. Would be worth finding out what you can get in your area

Re: Frustration with Congo puffer picky eating

Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 8:25 am
by suvattii2012
I would try with lobworms instead of earthworms, sometimes my suvattii won't even move for smaller earthworms unless there a decent size. When i put a huge lobworm in he goes crazy and shoots up out the sand and gets in while the worms still floating down.

Re: Frustration with Congo puffer picky eating

Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 10:16 am
by Pufferpunk
That's fantastic! Mine will only eat earthworms. Soak in FW Vita-Chem or Zoa vits.

Re: Frustration with Congo puffer picky eating

Posted: Thu Mar 22, 2012 11:04 am
by Donna_G
Thanks Pufferpunk, found vita-chem fresh on eBay :D