Can puffers get sick from eating feeder shrimp?

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While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.

Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
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Nas
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Can puffers get sick from eating feeder shrimp?

Post by Nas »

I know fish can get ich and other stuff from their tankmates but what about from feeder shrimp? I am thinking of regularly feeding my gsp ghost shrimp and was wondering if i should quarantine them before i do or if it's safe to dump them in the tank with my fish?
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Re: Can puffers get sick from eating feeder shrimp?

Post by Pufferpunk »

A lot of folks do QT & gutload their shrimp before feeding to their puffers.
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Re: Can puffers get sick from eating feeder shrimp?

Post by Myaj »

The safest way is to quarentine any live foods for at least 2 weeks, more if you see anything to indicate they aren't healthy.
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Re: Can puffers get sick from eating feeder shrimp?

Post by Jase »

plus the gut loading is good, since they have close to zipo nutrition (mostly water)
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Re: Can puffers get sick from eating feeder shrimp?

Post by blondenblue »

This maybe a really silly question but how do you gut load a shrimp???
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Re: Can puffers get sick from eating feeder shrimp?

Post by crazedpuffer »

Feed it food (preferablly vitamin enriched food) prior to feeding to your puffer.
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Re: Can puffers get sick from eating feeder shrimp?

Post by Myaj »

Yes, usually you feed snails, crickets or shrimp a good quality fish food or veggies such as zuchanni, algae sheets, etc. It gets the good stuff into the puffer via the shrimp or snail. The key is to feed the gut loaded food before they begin to digest the goodies.
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Re: Can puffers get sick from eating feeder shrimp?

Post by edmlfc1 »

Also with ghost shrimp you can see the food in them right after they eat. This is how I got my porc to eat. I would qt the shrimp for about 2 weeks in a 2.5 gallon & sponge filter. Then I would feed them, wait a few minutes, catch them & soaked them in garlic for about 30 minutes then relase in the sw tank.
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Re: Can puffers get sick from eating feeder shrimp?

Post by Nas »

edmlfc1 wrote:Also with ghost shrimp you can see the food in them right after they eat. This is how I got my porc to eat. I would qt the shrimp for about 2 weeks in a 2.5 gallon & sponge filter. Then I would feed them, wait a few minutes, catch them & soaked them in garlic for about 30 minutes then relase in the sw tank.

Soak them in garlic???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
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Re: Can puffers get sick from eating feeder shrimp?

Post by Jase »

it's an appetite stimulant.
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Re: Can puffers get sick from eating feeder shrimp?

Post by edmlfc1 »

Nas wrote:
edmlfc1 wrote:Also with ghost shrimp you can see the food in them right after they eat. This is how I got my porc to eat. I would qt the shrimp for about 2 weeks in a 2.5 gallon & sponge filter. Then I would feed them, wait a few minutes, catch them & soaked them in garlic for about 30 minutes then relase in the sw tank.

Soak them in garlic???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
:D That's what I said when I first heard it. But yes soaking in garlic is good for your puffer.
Cheaper but does not last as long....(I use a cap full to soak)
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A little more expensive but last a long time....(I use about 3-4 drops to soak)
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Re: Can puffers get sick from eating feeder shrimp?

Post by Nick »

I just have lots of real garlic around the house all the time, so if I need it for fish, they get the real deal.
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Re: Can puffers get sick from eating feeder shrimp?

Post by FishFan »

We use organic garlic sold for cooking in a jar. The organic garlic is preserved with citric acid, which isn't a health concern on its own.
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Re: Can puffers get sick from eating feeder shrimp?

Post by Nick »

I believe citric acid is vitamin C, which is actually good for the coloration and immune system, it's one of the few vitamins I have confidence in.
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Re: Can puffers get sick from eating feeder shrimp?

Post by Nas »

What about shrimp from the supermarket? They sell live fresh ones near where i live and i was considering putting one in my tank to see what would happen..
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