ATG's DPs

[LilGreenPuffer]

Ooooh, I like the dragon too!

See if your LFS can order you some blackworms. Mine hadn't even heard of them until I requested them. Now they're part of his regular weekly restock, and he gives them to all his fish.

[ATG]

Its just strange that I have been (trying) to feed him the same food that the fish store has..but he acts like he doesn't recognize it.
I (think) he might have eaten part of a ghost shrimp that I soaked in garlic. It fell behind a plant and I couldn't see it, but Chubs went back there for awhile and came out a tiny bit fatter.

[RTR]

Agree strongly w/Myaj!

I should have expanded on my "ramshorns best, common pond snails acceptable" comments. The preference is not nutritional, I consider them comparable there, but the ramshorns are easier to catch and get the flesh. The ramshorns tend to expose more flesh, and DPs, unlike their cousins, have fairly thin and not heavy incissors - they get as many or more snails by "bite and slurp" (loach technique) than by "crush and sort out broken shell" (standard puffer technique). the MTS snails are not puffer-safe due to their very strong shells - dangerous, especially for the smallish puffers such as SAPs and F-8s. -they can break off incissors, then need routine trimming of the opposite dental plate until the broken one recovers. . Experience is the most painful teacher.

In any given culture, one type of snail tends to dominate. Short term it will likely be ramshorns or common pond, but long-term it will always be MTS. For good cultures, keep just one type of snail to get the most of it.

HTH

[ATG]

I have all the snails in a tupperware container with a heater, along with some ghost shrimp. Some ghost shrimp are still in the tank but I want to take them out so its just the three red cherries. I don't want Chub to develop a taste for shrimp! I'm going to try to pluck out the MTS and get rid of them.

So I got Chub to eat regularily...but only with the frozen bloodworms. They have to be soaked in garlic juice, and I have to dangle them in front of him, one by one, with a pair of large tweezers. He will take half and spit it out while he eats the rest, and I have to fish around for the other half or get a new worm. He WILL NOT eat it if it touches the floor. He just refuses! I have to make him chase it too so he doesn't lose interest. I tried putting snails in the tank, but he ignores them. I tried soaking them in garlic too but It killed them, and I think Chub gets satisfaction from killing himself...It seems to me that I am his entertainment and he is forcing me to do all this absurd things just to make him happy. Am I going crazy?

[LilGreenPuffer]

Ahahaha, sometimes I do think they do things to annoy, inconvenience, or scare us. I don't think yours is the first puffer to refuse food that's hit the bottom of the tank. Have you tried live worms?

[ATG]

I don't have access to live worms. Personally, I think Chub is just a plain jerk! *sigh* But I can't help but like him!

[LilGreenPuffer]

Can your store order them? Or can you get some off of Ebay or AquaBid? My DPs prefer live worms to anything else I've ever offered them.

[ATG]

I suppose I could. But if I can get by on the bloodworms that would be most convienient for me
Some great pics incoming XD I snapped a good one for my avatar

[ATG]

One of my cherry shrimp being a dork!

Chub Chub deciding whether or not to visciously devour the dorky cherry shrimp:

Are those cuts or are those his gills? They don't look quite right

The shrimp are photo hogs and here they are trying to jump up and get the worm I have dangling for chub

Chub-"Do I appease my master and eat like he tells me too? Dance for me you puny mortal human! DANCE!!!"

Chub looking nice and plump

Chubs rising from the depths of the underworld to set forth the apocalypse:

[LilGreenPuffer]

That's a gill. It looks normal to me.