SAPs eating flake and pleco pellets

[blanketman]

hello hello pufferheads.

we've had 6 SAPs for about six months now. at first they only ate snails and red bloodworms.

then one started to eat flake - and now 3 out of 6 eat this as well as pleco pellets.

this is not normal behaviour?

they live in a 240 litre together with a few tetras, ancistrus and apistogrammas.

[LilGreenPuffer]

It's not normal. Most are pickier than that. But it won't hurt them, and as long as you continue feeding them their regular food, they'll be fine.

[Troender]

When it comes to SAPs, they actually can do this. There's a boy here where I live that also has SAPs that eat pleco pellets (actually he feeds them mostly this), and he is the only one I know that has been able to keep SAPs without having to do dentistry on them. I have also read that SAPs can take more green food than normal for puffers (and that's why they can eat those pellets). But don't take this as an absolute fact, as I have a poor memory - I can't remember exactly what was written. Whether it's a healthy food for them, I really don't know. I don't know SAPs good enough to know for sure. But my point here is that your SAPs are not the only ones in having this behaviour.

[Lil' Swimz$]

Boy, those SAP's are sure different then the rest of the puffers. They school, they tolerate tankmates, and some individuals will eat flake foods, my dwarf puffers won't touch flakes.

[dmill82]

i had saps that ate fish flake as well, they are funny little puffers

[LilGreenPuffer]

I had a GSP that ate flakes. That was a long time ago, before I knew anything about fish, of course.

[marksrush]

My modestus eats flakes, which I'm not happy about but he/she shares a tank with a mollie. At least that's what he gets in the morning; at night he gets little snails.

[Pufferpunk]

Fish, like any animal, are competitive feeders. If they see other fish eating flakes/pellets (ie: tetras, ancistrus and apistogrammas), they may also eat it, even if normally they wouldn't.