The Puffer Forum

Hello! New here, so apologies if I break any rules or guidelines - if I do, it's completely unintentional!

I've dabbled in freshwater and brackish puffers over the years, with my favorites probably being the dwarf and GSP. I recently came across a good price on a "buy one get one free" used 29 gallon, and although they both needed re-sealing, I picked them both up for $20. Not bad, eh?

I decided I wanted a Valentini, and I ordered one into the LFS. Picked him up yesterday. Awesome little guy - even ate after just a few hours in the tank. I fed some mysis, along with some table shrimp (shell on, no preservatives), and he went crazy. I fed the same today, but mixed in some red seaweed, which he happily sucked up along with the rest of his meal, perhaps unintentionally.

Can I feed this guy freshwater inverts? Ghost shrimp, ramshorn snails, pond snails, etc. I've got a few small hermits in there for him to hunt if he wishes, but he hasn't shown any interest. I've heard that you aren't supposed to feed SW fish FW fish before, due to some sort of protein that SW can't digest. Does that ring true for feeding SW fish FW inverts, as well?

Sure, you can feed him all those FW foods.
Here are some other ideas: library/feeding/feeding-your-puffers/

Thank you! Sorry, just now got around to viewing this.