Puffer Segregation During Feeding??

[MatthewLaw]

Greetings All- When I give my puffers some Mysis shrimp, the barbs swim over and start eatting too. i tried ot combat this effect by giving the barbs their flake food a few seconds BEFORE dropping the shrimp in. Nope they gobble that down then rush over for shrimp... the puffers eat some of the shrimp but the barbs just swarm and gobble it up.

Does anyone segregate their puffers, say in a smaller 2g tank that is put within the larger tank just for feeding time? so basically the puffers get to all their food without it being gobbled up by other fish??

[The Bruce]

what type of puffers are they?

[Mareva]

What happens in your tank is just like real life! Your puffers will have to learn to fight for their food IMO!

[MatthewLaw]

Two SAPs.

I am hoping that overnight they eat the snails that are at the bottom of the tank (right beneath them!!)

[The Bruce]

Two SAP's???? you should have no trouble at all feeding them, when i had an SAP with my dwarfs i had a problems getting my dwarfs food cus the SAP would race to the food

[blanketman]

here in the house we use dispensable pipettes when we feed our fish with Mysis and Bloodworms.

A pipette (also called a pipet, pipettor or chemical dropper) is a laboratory instrument used to transport a measured volume of liquid.

this is clearly not a natural way to feed fish. this is not how it is done in the wild nature. so what? it is a great way to have CONTROL with which fish to feed. a drop of Mysis here and a squirt of Mysis there. food segregation OK.

when our dwarfpuffers se the pipette coming near the tank they start to dance in the corner where the food comes into the tank. one of them, the male, is always first in line and keeps the two females in second line. so? with a pipette it is easy to hold back the food. so when the male dwarf goes for a round in the tank the females comes to the pipette to feed.

[MatthewLaw]

Initially did you have issues with feeding your SAPs? The puffers eat the Mysis shrimp without issue but aren't swimming up and chomping on the ramshorn snails. Maybe they dont know that it is food??

Does it matter the size of snails or will the puffers nip/eat even the larger ramshorn snails?

[apachepufferman]

if they are bigger than there eye then they probably will overlook it since it is to large to fit in there mouth. I know its hard to get snails that small but if you are breading them then just stick a bunch in the tank and the snails will bread in the tank and the babies will be small enough for the puffs to eat.

Are you stuck on the shrimp? I have never seen a fish pass up worms. That goes for my tanks and out when i'm fishing. There is just something about a worm that fish go crazy over. So if you are still having problems with them not getting enough food try some frozen bloodworms or blackworms. Just thaw them out and fan them out over the tank. That way the barbs will get some but your puffers will as well.

[MatthewLaw]

Thanks for the help. i just moved the puffers. i was getting concerned with excessive bullying by teh barbs...i mean teh puffers got away but it seemed stressful.

no issues with the puffers eatting shrimp. thanks for the snail-size clarification!!