I've tried bloodworms which seem to go uneaten, although the store I got him from said he ate them. This kiddo likes fresh live fish. I tried wiggling a silverside one night, she/he nipped it but didn't take any bites and left it alone after one nibble.
I was out of town all last week, so I instructed my husband to feed several feeder guppies on alternating days, (also a couple of zebra danios) and the Congo (really I need to get a name don't I? How about Tater ) relished them.
My Puffers: Tetraodon lineatus = 1 (Ronin) Tetraodon nigroviridis = 3 (still unnamed) Tetraodon miurus = 1 (unnamed...can't find a name worthy of his awesomeness!)
Our Congo (also unnamed, but I dig the name 'Tater'!!) has been a very strange fish to feed. At first he would ONLY eat live fish. Then I got him eating thawed jumbo shrimp (not the whole thing obviously, our dude/dudette is only about an inch & a half) by slowly wiggling it in the water so those leg looking things would sway around so he'd get interested and take a bite or two. Nowadays I don't have to do any tricks to get him to eat, he swims to the front of the tank begging for food every night.
He can still be moody, some days he takes one bite & is done when he usually has 5-6 bites (more like chomps, he can get pretty violent for a little dude). I make sure he gets a live fish as a treat once or twice a week though. It's kinda fun to watch him stalk his prey.
I'm sorry to say that all three of my miurus puffers like fresh live food, so I alternate between guppies (that I breed myself) and live earthworms. I tried to get them off the live stuff, but they will not eat anything else, and the food I was putting in the tank was just getting nasty and making the tank foul.
I figure as long as they are eating that's the main thing. And I agree, I do enjoy watching them "stalking" their prey, after all, they don't bite the fish, they just seem to inhale it and it's all over.
Ok, I guess it will be interesting to see how mine does over time. Right now, dead foods are definitely out of favor with the Tater.
Adria, I have a few frozen tiger shrimp so I might try your trick and see if I can get a chomp. I also have a bag of large krill, and maybe I'll get lucky with that as well. Thanks for the tip. Mine's about 3 inches long or so.
I bought a couple dozen feeder guppies & platies a couple days ago, and set them up in a new bowfront that's been cycling downstairs. It was originally going to go high brackish to marine and perhaps house a GSP one day, but for now this is what I will need to do.
I am doing pretty well at getting shrimp to breed. I dropped two ghost shrimps in yesterday and they got inhaled pretty quickly. Mostly my cherry shrimp are being prolific, but I'm hoping to sell those and just raise ghosts for food.
I'll treat the guppies and platies really well, and hopefully will get lots of healthy fry I can feed, down the road. That seems the safest course. Buying feeder fish from most of the local LFS seems to be a real gamble with the health of my prized Congo. Wouldn't you say?
My Puffers: 1 GSP (Microfiche) RIP, 1 Monotrete Turgidus (Leon) in a 30gal. 1 Monotrete suvattii in a 40 gal FW. 120 gallon BW with 3 juvenile Dragon Gobies (so cool). 55 gal with a 2" GSP named Hank. 180 gallon being set up for a Fahaka in the next few months!
Live tank bred shrimp were going to be my suggestion with the occasional tank bred live bearer thrown in once every third feeding. Make sure you are using a high quality vitamin supplement or gut loading the live food prior to feeding them to the Tater (btw, I grew up around potato farms and the name sooooo fits a miurus). If you are going to try to make the transition to frozen foods try soaking them in garlic extract for about 15 min prior to feeding, it's an appetite stimulant and attractant.
Most people will say that feeding live food is not good for the puffer because of the high fat content, etc. For me, I feed my arrowhead one livebearer fish every two weeks that I breed especially for him, the rest of the feedings are alternated between nightcrawlers (large earthworms) and frozen shrimp. That's all I can get him to eat. The reason behind feeding the live fish is two fold; first, congo's and arrowheads are primary piscivores, fish are a natural part of their diet. There is nutritional benefit from the oils and fats that live fish supply them in their diet. Second, as ambush predators they need to hunt to satisfy that instinct, I feel it goes a long way in their health and comfort in their surroundings.
"Darwin swings...annnnnnd a miss. Boy Jim, Chuck's suffered at the plate tonight. He's 0 for 3 and I'm not sure he's recovered from that shoulder pull a few weeks ago. I'll bet the front office is re-thinking that contract."
You are absolutely right reefchik not to want to gamble with the health and safety of your little Tater by feeding live fish directly from an LFS. Most LFS's don't treat their fish very well and guppies are usually over-crowded and fed poorly (in my opinion).
I never understood the injunction against feeding "live fish" to a piscivore. Isn't that a bit like trying to turn my dog or cat vegetarian?
When I have the knowledge and ability to do so, I believe in following nature as closely as possible.
I feed a good quality flake and occasional scrap of bloodworm (all vitamin soaked) to the feeders. The shrimp all get homemade snail jello, algae tablets and spirulina flake. We're coming up on the time of year when earthworms will go deep for winter, so I'm wondering if I can start a large soil pot in my basement to culture them until spring. Hmmm.....keeping my rotten little cat out of it might be a challenge, but it seems like a good idea.
I feed Baloo market prawn, and the occasional home bred crayfish, along with some feeders every now and then.. maybe once a month at most after they have been in QT. I have noticed as he has gotten bigger he definitely doesn't eat as much as he used to.
Aha! I hadn't thought of breeding my own crayfish yet. Or crawdads as I (being a GRITS) call them
I bet those self cloning marbled crays would breed just dandy in a 5 gal tank, ya think? I have one more new empty one with a sponge filter not set up yet.
That reminds me. I tried so hard to get a funny photo of Tater nose to nose with a ghost shrimp tonight in his tank. It was too cute. He didn't seem to want to snarf it, he was just staring at it, and it at him. But my camera wouldn't cooperate on autofocus and the shrimp just isn't visible That would have been a POTM candidate for sure.
I'm looking at an auction for two self cloning marbled crays.
Can you guys reassure me that if I get them, it's likely that Tater (my Congo) will eat the babies? So far the only foods she takes are live fish and bloodworms, if she's really hungry. I have a tank set up for crays but don't want to fool with them if Congos don't always like them. Or, alternatively, will the F8 or irrubesco like the baby crays, perhaps? I really like the idea of having live crunchy foods raised here to offer my puffs.
My Puffers: Puffers I have kept: T lineatus T miurus A modestus T biocellatus C valentini C coranata C papuan C lorteti DPs suvattii burrfish T niphobles
My Puffers: Puffers I have kept: T lineatus T miurus A modestus T biocellatus C valentini C coranata C papuan C lorteti DPs suvattii burrfish T niphobles
When I put a small red-claw crab in with my Congo, he went for the legs, but I think it annoyed him more than he was actually hungry for it. Keep in mind that piscivore puffers don't "need" crunchy foods for their teeth as other puffers do, that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with feeding those foods to your piscivores -- if they will eat them.
I am planning on getting some crays myself soon (the ones that reproduce quickly) and I will see how much luck I have in feeding them to my piscivores.
) relished them.
That would have been a POTM candidate for sure.