Feeding a F8

[kaylas]

For about a week, I have had a F8 puffer. I'm having some trouble feeding him. I have freeze-dried bloodworms and freeze-dried shrimps in their shells. Don't get me wrong, he *is* eating it, but it takes an act of congress. I have to drop the food in front of the filter so the water sweeps it down into the tank. After several times, it will happen to float in front of him and he will luck up and see it. He quickly slurps it up,then. I have to do this with every individual piece and I was just wondering- What's the deal? Is there any easier way without feeding live food?

[Nick]

Dried foods are not ideal for puffers. The reason they don't sink is they have a lot of air in them, which isn't the best thing for them to be swallowing. If you can get frozen foods, they sink more easily and are more readily taken. If you can't get them, I suggest soaking the freeze dried foods in water until they will sink, then feeding them.

[side19]

i'm having trouble feeding my figure eight as well. i have about a dozen live snails in teh tank with him (those little nusince snails that sometimes hitchhike on live plants) and with in his first hour he saw one floating adn took a single bite out of it and then hasn't touched any of the others. he doesn't seem to swim around the bottom of the tank very much and seems to stick to teh edges of the tank (the snails all moved to the middle for some reason) and i'm worried he won't eat them. any tips to get him to start hunting for them or get him to notice them?

[Bonsai_girl]

How decorated is your tank and how long have you had the puff for?

Have you tried him on anything other than snails yet?

[side19]

all the tank has is a decent sized rock formation and a long plant that reaches the top of teh water and spreads out. i've only had him for a day but I'm worried that eh won't start eating because I've had issues with fish in my 20 gallon freshwater tank that they just refuse to eat and then die off. and no i haven't tried anyhting other than snails yet (I'm actually somewhat broke at the moment and i can get the snails for free from the local petsmart)

[Bonsai_girl]

Ok, well there are quite a few things to consider (others may have different suggestions).

First, food isn't that expensive. When I kept F8s, I used to buy a massive bag of mussels from the supermarket/fishmonger. They're usually very cheap, and can be shoved straight in the freezer...then taken out one by one, thawed and fed. They last for quite a while, but remember to clean up any uneaten food so it doesn't spoil the water. You can do the same with shell-on prawns. Remember puffers need a varied diet, so try to feed more than just snails no matter how broke

Have you tested your water and what're the parameters?

What sort of equipment have you got in the 20 gal?

How does the puffer look? Dark belly? Sunken? White spot?

Also remember he's probably very unsettled due to the new home. Answer the above, but give him time to come around

[side19]

ok I'll try to get him some new food after the weekend (getting my paycheck on sunday and then cashing it on monday). water parims are as follows.

ammonia- between 0 and .25 (color landed between those two can't get an exact read)
nitrates- 0
nitrites- 0
pH- 7.2

he's looking fine, round belly, white stomach, no signs of disease. he's just very timid and stay to the top back of the tank. he's most likely just unsettled but I'm just worried becuase i want to take the best care of him i can. i've always loved puffers and now that i have one of my own i want to get it right.

[Bonsai_girl]

Did you cycle the tank? If so, how and for how long?

He will be a bit unsettled for a while - I usually don't feel any new fish for a day or so after bringing them back.

You might want to think of more decor in the tank in time - less boredom

Keep an eye open for a sunken stomach - if he gets that you'll need to treat for internal parasites.

[side19]

i cycled it for a week and used API Stress zyme and introduced the snails from the start (source of ammonia for the bacteria to grow off of) i have more decorations available but i tried ot put them in and the gravel wouldn't fully cover the bases of them but I'm planning on putting them in anyway and possibly piling some of the gravel around their bases to fully cover them. and it'll keep an eye out for a sunken stomach. I've had to deal with parasites before and was able to treat them in my fresh water tank.

and to answer your question about what i have in my 20 gallon tank i have an emperor 280 power filter and the heater that come with the tank (top fin 20 gallon set up from petsmart, got it about 6 years ago now)

thanks for the help so far. nice puffer btw.

[Nick]

Stress zyme is usually ineffective in cycling tanks from the feedback I have heard, so test ammonia and nitrite every day, doing a 50% water change right away if either reads above the bottom of the chart(since yours does not seem to easily distinguish very low amounts from zero). Squeezing out a filthy filter cartridge from your well established tank might help the cycling process forward MUCH faster.

[side19]

ok just went to check on eight ball (my girlfriend named him) and when i looked at him he was opening and closing his mouth rapidly and there looked to be a point under his mouth (as if there was a pointy bone or something similar poking the inside of his throat) and was wondering, do puffers chew? chould he have finally eaten something and i missed it and only saw him chewing it/ trying to swallow it? i started to freak out thinking something was wrong and started looking for any spare supplies that could help treat a gasping fish (which is what i thought he was doing) and then i went back up states and he was fine. could he have just had a meal and i missed it?

[side19]

ok i'll squeeze out my filter. will just the filthy cartridge work or should i swirl my bio wheel around a little bit?

[Nick]

The filter cartridge has the most easily shaken off bacteria, so I'd say thats enough, but you can shake the biowheel in there too if you really want to. The breathing behavior sounds like an ammonia reaction.

[side19]

he stopped the breathing thing though, its weird, he did it for about 2 minutes and then stopped and now hes' acting fine and swimming around the tank. I'll go do the filter dripping right now while its still fresh in my mind. thanks for all teh help.

[Bonsai_girl]

Ok from what you've said I'd suggest your tank isn't at all cycled. I completely agree with Nick - the vast majority of products sold as fast-cycling are completely useless. The only two things I know to actually contain live bacteria are Bio-Spira (in the US) and Bactinettes (in the UK and Europe) - these products have to be kept in the fridge from the time of manufacture until they're used.

Puffers usually have bony plates as teeth - hence the genus Tetraodon (tetra- from the Greek for 'four' and -odon from the Greek for teeth). They're very messy eaters and often spit shells back out, so it's not unusual to see bits of shell in the mouth and floating around afterwards. It's one of the reasons why you have to stay on top of water parameters - not only are they messy, they're also extremely sensitive to nitrites etc.