Overfeeding Puffers

[crystalk]

well i asked if they can over eat...and heres my answer.
i feed "the pufster" daily but he only takes a few good bites and then leaves it alone.
I have a couple super fast red eyed tetras in there with him, and he leaves them alone..they eat together even...i know this will be short lived..but they are too fast to catch..so he leaves them alone..as he is small. LOL. even after eating he swims around the bottom..looking for a shrimp hiding in the plants. LOL.
Hes a Hunter for sure.
Crystal k.
1 (2 1/2 inch) Fahaka

[PufferKate]

My GSP are little piggies too. They'll eat and eat and look like balloons. But recently I've noticed the smallest one doesn't come out as quickly as the other two do to eat and sometimes there is very little left for him. Now this morning he didn't come out at all. I couldn't even find him. Hes become quite the houdini. I had to go to work so I'm a little worried about him. If he died would his tank mates eat him? I'm considering a divider for him so he doesn't have feel intimidated by his bigger tankmates. I've never witnessed them attack him but I don't know what happens when I'm at work. So who knows.

[Pufferpunk]

I think a divider or seperate tank is an excellent idea. He can starve.

[recombinantrider]

If he died would his tank mates eat him?

I have witnessed immobile, likely dead GSPs being torn apart by tankmates at the LFS more than once. They were pretty nasty scenes.... If the little one is intimidated it's a great idea to use a divider.

[PufferKate]

Unfortunately, when I got home tonight. I discovered Osiris tucked under a rock...dead. I only had the little guy a month and I think he had the best personality of the three. He'll be missed.

[recombinantrider]

I'm sorry for your loss.

[flash.dan]

I find my Mbu is good at telling me what and when he wants food. usually every 2-3 days i will show him some prawns most mornings even if he ate the previous day! majority of the time he wont eat two days in a row but if he does it wont be much. For example he hadsnt ate in 3 days today he had 2 mussels 1 cockle 2 king prawns and spat soem squid out! (cause hes a fussy bugger). He wont eat now for at lewast 2 days. i find if they are in a good routine they will stay like that. I give him the option and i think he knows now when he needs food and not just wants it as mos mornings he will turn his nose up to me. Obviously not all fish are this easy to read i think its about knowing your puffer, Age and size come into play a lot too
a little common sense and you wont go far wrong

[Pufferpunk]

You're keeping a 17" mbu in a 120g tank with lots of other fish? Ok, duh... I read that totally wrong... what size tank is he in?

Please tell us about your faka spawnings in a new thread! Would love to hear about your Royal plecos too. Mine is close to 10 years old now.

[flash.dan]

ive posted my expierence in breeding fahakas.

bubba my mbu is in a 9x4x4 with about 120 other fish mainly small tetras, 8 barbs, 3 blue acaras, and a few loaches and botia. its a great show tank sitting across one wall in my living room.

[Ceylon & GSP Fan]

My dwarf GSP has very strange eating habits and will take a liking to certain foods, live clams are his favourite, and he will eat until he throws up. Then he will ignore food for a day or so no matter what. He also loves to eat dried seaweed, but only in strips, not in flakes.

Cute little guy that loves to "hide" right in the front of the tank until you put your finger near him on the glass and then he bolts.

[Pufferpunk]

Probably isn't best to let him eat so much.

[Ceylon & GSP Fan]

It's tough to stop him, and a new revelation for this GSP, as he hoards these clams away from fish he usually won't even look at. Put clams in and he turns into David v. Goliath.

In a tank as large as mine, 60" x 30" x 30" plus a 90 gallon sump, I am unsure how I could control what one fish would consume?
I have always worked on the principal of feeding them 2-3 times daily in small portions that are quickly consumed. If they don't eat, or eat slowly, at at feeding I don't feed them again until the next evening. Is this not correct?

The other fish in my tank, when they aren't quarantine at the LFS include: 1 midget (PC?) 1.5" GSP , 1x 6" Ceylon, 3 x green chromis, 1 x striped soldier fish, 1 x mag. foxface,1 x passer angel, 1 x french angel,1 x emperor angel, 1 x mimic tang, 20+ red foot hermits, and 5 x sand sifting starfish.
They eat aggresively and I try and feed the tangs and angels some greens first, although the GSP eats dried seaweed too, and the other fish some pellets. Then I add the "meat" last to feed the puffers, and the rest who want some meat too, so they get some too.

Their diet is a selection from a bag of frozen assorted seafood that has wild caught squid, cuttlefish, mussels, octopus, clams, and shrimp, conveniently cut up and bagged. Plus krill, two types of mysis shrimps, and the occasional crab leg. Bloody fish eats like a king.

[JBurg]

I have about a 6-7in puffer it seems he is always hungry no matter what. How often should i feed him?

[JBurg]

Oh i forgot to say but he is a fahaka puffer

[Pufferpunk]

What do you mean, "he's always hungry"? Is he just begging or skinny?