red eye puffer question

[goobe]

Hey guys,
This is my first time writing here and i just have a few questions.
Ive had my red eye puffer fish for about a month and a half and when i first got him, he was eating blood worms that i got from the store. About 2 weeks ago i heard that i was able to feed them shrimp cut up from a shrimp ring so i tried it. Apparently my puffer loved it. The next day when i tried to feed him blood worms again he wouldnt eat a single one. Now my question is, is it ok for my puffer to eat these shrimp rings now that apparently hes a "picky" eater or should i try another type of food.

When i first got my tank i put a Chinese algae eater in my tank to clean. Since then my algae eater has grown quite a bit and seems to bully and hog the shirmp from my puffer. To sovle this i tried putting 2 smaller peices into the tank to try to split up the feeding group. this works but my algae eater seems to just suck on one peice then swim quickly to the other peice. It seems like my puffer has to wait around for my algae eater to finsh before he gets his share. Now my second question is should i remove my algae eater and put him in a tank all by himself or just deal with therace for food

Finaly, i recently bought another tank to breed snails they are doing great i have around 60 snails just hanging out. Now my third question is how many time should i be feeding my puffer fish these snails. (He seems to love them and goes for them the second he sees them) Should these snails be a weekly treat or be fed one a day ?

Sorry about all the questions, ill appreciate any answers you guys can give me

ill try to get some pics of my tank soon

[Dadof4]

Hey goobe,
So, he's developed a taste for seafood, huh? Actually shrimp is good for him as long as it's raw not cooked. I think the shrimp rings are cooked, you lose nutritional value for the fish if the shrimp is cooked. If he's refusing blood worms now, you can try other seafood's like oysters, clams, squid, and a puffer favorite from what I've seen, mussels. Of course you need to feed snails too. What I do with the clams and mussels is scrape most of the meat off the shell, cut the lose meat up and freeze it. I then feed the shell to the fish with some meat attached. It forces them to grind their teeth on the shell to get the meat off and keeps their teeth healthy and wore down. With snails I feed one or two a day along with other food.

The Chinese Algae Eater may have to go. I had one and he was real docile until he got to about 2 inches then he started stealing food and getting aggressive with my other fish.

[goobe]

Thanks alot for the help ^.^

ill try those foods

heres some pics of my fish
my tank

i had to wait for him to be sleeping before i was able to get thise close

my ghost shrimp eating some bloodworms

[Troender]

I think you can call him a she. And she looks healthy.

The chinese algae eater will have to go. They grow into bullies, as mentioned. They can even injure other fishes, as they suck themselves to the sides of the fish, and tear off parts of the skin. Those are nasty fishes with quite a temper, especially when they grow older/larger.

You should feed your puffer snails at least twice a week.