Varieties of food for GSP - specific question

[growitnow]

With my new puffer I have been allowing him to sample various foods, both frozen and freeze dried, and snails from the snail farm I set up months ago. But I am discovering some of the frozen foods I thought would be core/key foods are just too tiny or mushy when thawed. Among others, I got some Hikari frozen krill, blood worms, brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, and ocean plankton (all Hikari brand).

The frozen krill I thought would be good but is a bust, because once thawed is too mushy and the bits are way too tiny. The plankton is nice and 'meaty', in good and mostly whole pieces, but puffer does not like. So, question is what specific kind of food can I try, that is not too tiny or will disintegrate when thawed. Everyone mentions krill, but the Hikari frozen I got falls apart into tiny bits when thawed. Maybe there is a different brand of frozen krill that would be better than the Hikari? I also have some Tetra freeze dried baby shrimp, and freeze dried krill which I have not tried yet.

I'm not looking for an advertisement, but please include manufacturer and food name, I'm accumulating a freezer full of stuff that is not working out as I thought it would. Puffer is small, and becoming finicky about what he'll eat. I have not yet tried raw shellfish, etc., and would like to stay for the moment with frozen or freeze dried for ease of access and feeding, though any suggestions would be welcome.


Thanks

[zombiefetus]

I feed my GSP things from the seafood section of the grocery store. Fresh Clams, Oysters, Scallops, Crab, etc.

Since he only eats a small amount at a time I've been freezing the extras and defrosting them in a cup of tank water when I need them. Granted, they won't last too long in the freezer, and I usually end up throwing out anything over a week old.

Krill isn't a good staple food for a GSP, most commercial fish foods arn't too good for them in fact. You'll really want to look into getting him more hard shelled seafoods.

[growitnow]

Thanks, that is a good and sound recommendation. And one I plan to follow.

As an adjunct to fresh, frozen and/or freeze dried may in some cases be quite useful (soaking meds, feeding small puffs with frozen blood worms that are small but visible, etc.). Frozen have already been sterilized, and so like freeze dried can be soaked in med/vitamins more than just overnight as needed.

I would be curious to hear what frozen (or other) foods folk use that are not all minced up like the ones I apparently got. I welcome any suggestions.

I also saw a video on YouTube yesterday of a puffer eating a live mealy worm. I would be hesitant feeding live foods for fear of parasites, but mealy worms could be gut loaded with vitamins, etc. (by letting them eat..fish flakes, fruit, veg). Any thoughts?

[zombiefetus]

I feed live crickets and ghost shrimp gut loaded on veggies when I'm feeling lazy and don't want to drive to the grocery store (I work at Petsmart, so I can just pick them up on my way out) At fist my GSP was a little apprehensive about the crickets, but now he loves them.

[bigmoose]

i feed mine and i have four of them ghost shrimp-live and frozen mysis shrimp pond snails and live brine shrimp that is hook up to tank when they swim out they are gone lol!!! but they really like the mysis shrimp the most-frozen

[StormySkiez]

My two baby gsp's get fed medium size raw shrimp hand fed, freeze dried blood worms, freeze dried krill once a week, hand fed cooked snow crab (for the hard shell to help keep teeth trimmed). Pond snails once in a while.

Be sure if you feed the snow crab to feed the small end of the leg to them, otherwise you will have a lot of crab meat dropping out, dirtying the tank. The idea is for them to chew on the shell some to get to the meat.

I will be adding raw shell on oysters to their diet this week. Personally I don't like the prepared frozen food they sell for fish. They are expensive and seemed to create a lot of waste from the food being missed by the puffer and falling to the bottom of the tank.

[jax]

Dunno bout GSP, but my two F8's absolutely love it when I drop in a previously frozen shell-on prawn, I dangle this on a piece of cotton and leave in for about 5 to 10 minutes, I break the shell aswell to make it easy for them, they go mad for it so don't do it too often, bout once a week or so as supplement, not sure if its normal, but they always go for its eyes first ! Then I pull out whats left , thats why i tie on cotton and simply throw it away. They also love frozen bloodworms, snails ect, but refuse pre-pared mussell or cockles from the lfs.

[sparks42]

I feed my GSP snails everyday.
For more of a full "meal" I give him a mealworm every other day. He loves mealworms. you can buy them at a local pet store.
I also feed him grocery store food like shrimp and crab but I don't want to....I'm afraid it could be bad for him?.....becuse it's cooked....so I RARELY feed him grocery store stuff.

Sorry...long story short....try mealworms!....and more snails!

and for a treat I buy tiny tiny tiny little hermit crabs and he hunts them out hehe
once i bought a few ghost shrimps and he liked them

[puff_love]

Well i just dropped a huge earthworm in my tank and they destroyed it and my GSP are only about 1 inch long. I also give them frozen blood worms and sometimes krill. Ofcoure some snails every now and then for the beak trim. The snails are scarce here.

[SpockthePuffer]

I've been wanting to feed my GSP something else to keep his teeth down, I have been feeding snails but they are kind of a pain to find in my freshwater tank. I tried to find some frozen stuff in the grocery store, all I could find were some shrimp that still had their shell. Is shrimp shell hard enough to wear down teeth? I don't really know anything about seafood so I don't know what a shrimp shell is like. I guess people in PA don't eat a lot of seafood because the frozen section at the grocery store is small. What other hard stuff do you all feed, and what exactly is it called? I guess I will have to try another grocery store and see if I can find anything hard there...

[StormySkiez]

My guess is the shell on shrimp would not do much to help keep puffer teeth trimmed. Shrimp shell feels soft to the touch raw. That is why I will be getting raw oysters and I have added cooked snow crab to my puffers diet. Check my post ^ above.

PP doesn't feed snails at all. She would be the best one to answer what in fact is the best way to keep a puffers teeth trimmed without feeding snails.

I would like to know as well. Is 2 times a week feeding snow crab or oysters going to do the trick? I would guess yes as when puffers get older they should be fed less.

[StormySkiez]

Now the grocery store says they can not get shell on raw oyster.

I bought raw shell on mussel instead. Mussel for such small puffers is a waste of money. There is way to much meat on the shell. That is if the meat doesn't fall completely out of the shell first. A young puffer can over eat in a heart beat if fed a whole mussel (mine loved mussel). The puffers didn't even care about the shell. The meat was so easy to rip into they didn't bother with the shell. The next feeding of mussel I cut most of the meat out. I still left too much meat and they over ate again. If feeding mussel for variety and the hard shell to a young puffer you will need to pull out almost all the meat and hope that some stays in the shell for the puffer to chew on. I doubt I will buy mussel again.

I see now snails are the most affordable hard shelled food for a puffer.