Puffer eating pellets but not biting into shells...

Ujon · Post by **Ujon** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 12:48 pm

I pried open the shell and feed the flesh inside to the fish and he loves it but he just not buying those shell-on baits (thawed).

I'm quite sure the LFS in my area does not have the garlic flavouring stuff, which I read from another thread.

Here is the photo of my puffer btw:

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Chopper01uk · Post by **Chopper01uk** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 4:19 pm

Hi mate, when i was trying to get my puffer off of bloodworm and onto shell on food, i chopped up some garlic really finely and opened the shells and covered the flesh with the garlic, covered it in clingfilm in a bowl and left it for a couple of hours in the fridge, job done, he munched his little heart out lol, have a go and see if it works.

Post by **Pufferpunk** » Sun Jan 22, 2006 6:28 pm

It is just too weird seeing that puffer living w/a goldfish!

Ujon · Post by **Ujon** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 12:16 am

Chopper01uk wrote:Hi mate, when i was trying to get my puffer off of bloodworm and onto shell on food, i chopped up some garlic really finely and opened the shells and covered the flesh with the garlic, covered it in clingfilm in a bowl and left it for a couple of hours in the fridge, job done, he munched his little heart out lol, have a go and see if it works.

Hi chopper, thanks for the advice. But should I cover the shell instead with the chopped garlic since my little puffer does eat the flesh, just that he seems like not knowing how to use his teeth to crack open the shells to get to the food.

Post by **Pufferpunk** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 12:24 am

The shells are too hard to crack. The action of getting the food out of the shell is enough to keep the teeth trimmed.

Chopper01uk · Post by **Chopper01uk** » Mon Jan 23, 2006 12:14 pm

No mate not the shell, open the shells and cover the flesh yeah and don't go and give him any free food like non shell on flesh or you'll never get him to eat it from the shell, just leave the flesh in the shells in the tank he'll soon get his head round it, and yes i agree p/punk, that goldfish looks like he's getting well to comfortable lol.
Certainly wouldn't last more than 5 minutes with my beast lol.

Ujon · Post by **Ujon** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 12:07 pm

Please forgive me if I'm missing something totally obvious here but if cracking of the shells not necessary, the flesh on shells such as clams is quite easy to peel off. If i feed the clams to the puffer, it does not take much effort on the teeth to tear off the flesh from the shell. How would this be any better than pellets in wearing down their teeth??

I'm only feeding my puffer clams at the moment.

Chopper01uk · Post by **Chopper01uk** » Tue Jan 24, 2006 1:20 pm

Well mate, from my experience, yes the main bulk of flesh comes out quite easily, but my puffer loves to get every bit out of the shell, including the membraney type thingy lol, that holds the flesh to the shell, i think its this gnawing at the shell to get the membraney type thingy lol, is what helps keep their teeth in trim.

Cockles, Clams, Mussels they are all good.

If ya don't mind me asking, whats been chompin on your poor puffers fins? well that's what it looks like.

Ujon · Post by **Ujon** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 1:38 am

Thx mate

Now I understand better the complex world of puffer dentistry

Regarding the fins, I believe the puffer already got the marks when I bought him/her from the LFS. Believe me, now this guy is the new boss in my aquarium - staying put at the very front and centre of the tank, waiting for feeding time.

In addition to the goldfish, all the 12 original tetras are still in the tank well and alive.

EDIT:

Just changed water and I realized that 2 of the tetras are missing! I thought they jumped out but they nowhere to be seen on the floor. I never see my puffer trying to catch them so far. Could it be the goldfish swallowed them by accident?

Pamela · Post by **Pamela** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 7:42 am

Oh dear...I think it's most likely your puff has had them.
yeah, this teeth thing...I've got two F8s, and Robert doesn't bother scraping the last bits out of the shell like Mags does, so he's got big teeth which I'm waiting to trim as soon as I think they're problematic.
Mags on the other hand has always has tiny teeth (one of which has dissappeared recently...hoping to see it grow back) because she really goes for the remnants on the shell and wears the teeth down.
The difference is quite striking...I've had them for 19 months now, and this'll be the 2nd time I've had to trim Robert's teeth...he's so naughty!
Pami.

Chopper01uk · Post by **Chopper01uk** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 2:21 pm

http://esnips.com/web/FishyFilmsstarrin ... ttleFahaka

Ujon have a quick look at this link its a couple of minny films of my puffer eating cockles, just click on the link then the film file, then click open, easy peasy.
Quite cute i think lol.

lisalisa · Post by **lisalisa** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 2:34 pm

Killer is stunning. Beautiful.

Chopper01uk · Post by **Chopper01uk** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 2:41 pm

Thank You very much Lisa, i passed your message on to him, but he got all bashful and went n hid in his pipe lmao.

lisalisa · Post by **lisalisa** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 2:44 pm

Ujon · Post by **Ujon** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 7:39 am

Your puffer is awesome, chopper, especially the coloring (the whitish body with brown stripes make him a tiger alrite

)

So thats how the puffers trim their teeth..quite different from the way I imagine before. Thanks.

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Puffer eating pellets but not biting into shells...

Puffer eating pellets but not biting into shells...