The Puffer Forum

Does anyone know what their wild eating habits are that keep their teeth down?

It's just I've read an awful lot of posts saying that even with a mainly Snail diet they get overgrown.

Interesting question. Why would nature equip them with such extremely fast growing teeth? There might be something about their diet, or something about their environment, or both.

Diet: The website www.seriouslyfish.com/species/colomesus-asellus/ states the following: "There is some evidence to suggest that aufwuchs form a significant proportion of the natural diet, therefore it may be worth permitting or even encouraging algal growth on hard items of décor." Makes sense to me.

Environment: Maybe the teeth are affected by the acidic, soft water in the Amazon (but apparently not black water habitats). It would be interesting to know more about SAP keepers' water parameters (pH, GH) in relation to how often the beaks need to be trimmed.

Who knows really, unfortunately we cannot recreate their wild environment so we may never know. I believe it's likely just because there are easier food items in our tanks so they are not grinding their teeth on rock to dig out that perfect snail they can never reach. They are hilarious and rewarding but are smart enough to wait for an easy option if they believe one is available. Once they suss there is no easy option they will chomp away which will reduce but not remove dentistry issues entirely. Their teeth grow really really fast for a reason but I cannot fathom why, perhaps food is short so broken knashers need to repair quickly.

I think it's really interesting. We should really study an animal before removing it from the wild for the pet trade surely.

I've been reading everything I can on it and it does appear the algae thing may hold some weight. There are quite a few posts out there where SAP owners report that they enjoy scraping it off rocks in the aquarium. I read one where they said they ignored snails where they were so preoccupied with algae chomping.

I'm seriously considering getting a large tank for SAP too one day if I get on well with my Figure 8. Something about them all bombing about together is pretty cute and I like their hyper nature (although I think my F8 could probably give them a run for their money in the adhd department).

I've read that in the wild they eat algae off of rocks which wares down their teeth.

The wild is very different to tank life. They are smart and will take the easy option for most energy with smallest effort. Too many people keep them with other fish as they are placid compared to other puffers, they will eat the soft foods offered for other fish leading to dentistry issues. This in turn leads to added stress for fish and keeper. They are fascinating and slightly crazy, but difficult to keep happy imo

Arny wrote:I've read that in the wild they eat algae off of rocks which wares down their teeth.

This is what I've read on a few posts from users when I've been hardcore Googling lol. Quite a few mentioned they have noticed theirs do it in the aquarium too. I can't actually imagine snails wear them down that much, they kinda just bust the shell and slurp it out haha.

So maybe a little of that green stuff on a load of rocks is a good thing!

Busing the shell will wear down their teeth.

I have seen mine grazing on algae off bogwood and plants. I also feed a verity of hard foods snails clams shell on prawns etc but still the teeth grow.

Unless 90% of their food is snails, you'll be trimming the teeth every 4-6 months.

+1. Even with a mass crunch diet you need to get in and play dentist sometimes. It's insane how fast their knashers sprout