T. suvattii question

[sjwagn1]

Hello, I was finally able to acquire an arrowhead and after searching the literature have one question. Apparently this puffer is mainly a fish eater and an ambush predator. I give it feeder swordtails and rosy red minnows which it loves. Should I also feed crayfish or other hard shelled food? Do you need to worry about the beak not wearing down in a fish eater? I feed my fahaka exclusively on crayfish, snails, and shellfish because I know their beaks need the constant grinding to avoid overgrowth, but how about the suvattii?

Thanks for any information you can give.

[Nick]

Some hard shelled foods is a good idea, they certainly would ambush snails and crays or similar in addition to fish in the wild. I'd stick to only feeders you breed yourself, or frozen feeders if they must be from the store.

[Troender]

Not all suvattiis take snails. My suvattii refuses to eat them, which has turned his tank into a snail breeding tank (after I fed him snails for a long time, and none of them disappeared). The only problem is that I don't like to pick snails out of his tank, as I am afraid he might think my fingers are food.
Piscivore puffers are not is such a big need of having their teeth wore down as other puffers, as their main food source is fish. Their teeth don't grow very fast. Feeding prawns/shrimps with the shell on should be enough to keep them wore down. But if your puffer takes snails, of course it would be nice to give him that snack.

[plurmaster]

put a crayfish in there and you'll have yourself a UFC match..heh

[sjwagn1]

Thanks for the information!!