Help me raise my baby GSP!

[aprilo]

Hello everyone. I'm new to all this. I was reading alot of the other posts, and it seems that I am one of the fellow "walmart GSP buyers." I went to buy a simple goldfish, but then I saw the GSPs. I fell in love with mine, Jesse. Little did I know how much care they require [walmart fails to inform customers, which I think I may find a way to contact them about that]. But that's ok, because I am a very dedicated and loving pet owner. I think Jesse had a close call with death at first because I didn't set up the proper tank. But after reading all the advice on here, I think I've got it down. He seems much, much healthier now and has returned to his normal colors.

My question is: Jesse is about an inch long, if that. So is he a baby? He was the smallest in his tank when I bought him, so I figured he was young. My big problem is feeding him. The first thing I got him was fish flakes, and he was munching on them a bit. Then a lady at Petco [who was of NO help at all] told me to buy cichlid pellets. I did, but they are too big for his mouth! He'll grab one, but then spit it out. A very nice man at a local pet store gave me ghost shrimp, but they are as well too big for him. So what do I feed a baby GSP?! Help please!

[Nick]

Worms and small snails are the best things to feed a baby GSP. Frozen bloodworms, live blackworms, and small snails will do the trick. If you can break up the pellets enough for him to eat them, they will be good for wearing down his teeth a bit, but meaty foods, like bloodworms, blackworms, snails, mussels, etc should be the bulk of his diet. He is very young at an inch long, several months old probably.

[Pufferpunk]

Try freeze-dried plankton too. Be sure to read the GSP article in our Library.

[CountryGirlAmanda]

Foods for smaller puffers are frozen/freeze-dried krill/plankton, gut-loaded ghost shrimp, glass worms, blood worms, and small snails (the size of their eye) i am starting to breed pond snails for my little GSP to eat. Snails are very important and are an essential part of a puffers diet, especially when theyre small. When he gets bigger he can eat cut-up pieces of scallops, shrimp, crab legs, whole mussels, clams, oysters, squid, lobster, and crayfish. I was told to mix it up for my GSP like everyday so I currently have freeze-dried blood worms and freeze-dried mysis shrimp and i also switch it every other day what i give him. And of course snails too. I hope your little guy stays healthy! I got mine the same way, stupid wal mart! but i love this little guy to death and so i went to petsmart because walmart didnt have any frozen food and the live food was all too big (grr) and the lady that helped me filled me in a lil more and now my baby is in high brackish water and ive done lots of research and my little guy is my love lol

[edmlfc1]

Welcome to the box! If you can get some pond or ramshorn snails and they are too big for him to eat, you can crush them between your fingers. This is what I would do for my dwarf puffers. Also like everyone suggested: shrimp, mussles, freeze-dried and frozen bloodworms etc.

Here's the feeding article:
library/feeding/feeding-your-puffers/

[CountryGirlAmanda]

How is your little guy?!

[aprilo]

im estatic! im sitting here watching him chow down on freeze dried shrimp! and he is FINALLY learning who i am. he swims up to me when i get home. i just started a full time job, so i havent made it out to the pet store yet. i was sooo disappointed when i went to petco. the lady there had NO idea what i was talking about [but obviously she was using the best of her ability to understand. but i knew more than her :\ ] but my parents go to this local owned HUGE fish & aquarium store. and the guy there was sooo knowledable. so ill be making a trip out there this weekend to look for snails. you're all going to hate me, but im afraid to touch snails. is there a way i can feed them to him without having to touch them?!

oh. to answer your question, he's doing great! thanks for asking.

[CountryGirlAmanda]

yay! im glad hes doing great and dont worry i dont like touching snails either (especially crush them to feed them to Loops while hes young) but idk maybe you could just use gloves (thats what i do) if its just the thought of actually touching them.

[aprilo]

are they alive when you "crush" them?

[CountryGirlAmanda]

yess thats why i use gloves...