puffer care whilst on Holiday

[vishnu78]

Hi ,

I stumbled on this forum when looking for some help on my GSP, never knew they had such a big following !
Anyway it seems that next month I will need to be out of the country for two weeks, I normally have an experienced friend who looks after my fish when I'm away but he too wont be around. It seems I am going to have to get my mother to help out. Does anybody have any advice on the 'easiest' types fo food that can be fed to puffers? She wont touch snails and will struggle with bloodworms etc ( am worried about her not properly defrosting / feeding too much etc ) is there any kind of dried food they could perhaps survive on for that period?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[crazedpuffer]

Does it eat clams?
If your mother cracks open a small clam and feeds the puffer it once or twice that should be fine.
Your puffer could go for 2 weeks without eating but thats a bit of a stretch.

[stevenallenbarnard]

Ahhhh, I've been here before. Pre prepare all of her food in advance (try market shrimp and just cut it up into portion sizes and put it in a freezer container.) Tell her how much to feed and when. Do a large water change before you go and you should be good. It's what I had to do for my wife when I had to be gone for a couple weeks once.

[Pufferpunk]

I dole out freeze-dried plankton into small Dixie cups for my elderly neighbot to dump into my tanks.

[bazil323]

You could put the portions in 2 of those weekly pill scheduler thingys, and leave one in the fridge for the first week and the other in the freezer for the second. Tell her to take out the second one on the 7th day of the first planner so that it is thawed by the next day. That way she just has to open the correct day and dump the food in.

Is a week too long to leave the food thawed? Anyone?

[Nick]

I'd say food can go thawed in the fridge a few days at most, you can never be sure how long it was held before freezing. I've never stored it more than about a day and a half in the fridge personally.

[Pufferpunk]

Freeze-dried is the only way to go. Be sure he's eating it before you leave & how much. Have them feed him every other day.