valentini puffer care

[carvaletingpro]

i'm hopefully getting a valentini puffer at the weekend to go into my d-d 24g aquarium, its currently stocked with 2x common clowns, 1 yellow clown goby and a bi color blennie.

i'm struggling to find much about feeding my puffer really, i currently feed every other day with nu era flake and maybe once a week with frozen mysis. can anyone give me any pointers to feeding the puffer


cheers rory

[trekenk]

Hi and welcome to The Puffer Forum. I hate to be the barer of bad new but your tank is already fully stocked with what you have. It is highly suggested 25 gallons just for the Valentini Puffer. Better to wait until you have upgraded in tank size before adding.

[carvaletingpro]

Ok thanks for that

[trekenk]

You also have to watch those clowns, they can really pick on the slow moving Puffer, especially if they are a mating pair. We just recently had a post with this problem of a clown picking on the Puffer.

[carvaletingpro]

the clowns are around 1 and a half years old, they are clearly foremed as male and female now, i have yet to see them spwan

[Pufferpunk]

I agree, 2 adult clowns in a 24 is a fully stocked tank. Check our Pufferpedia for minimum tank size for the fish you are interested in. That's without tank mates.

[solothedrunk]

the clowns are around 1 and a half years old, they are clearly foremed as male and female now, i have yet to see them spwan

You can help them along with a specific lighting regimen that mimics they're light. What are you doing for them in terms of lighting?

and +1 on what PP said, your cube is full. You could add some CUC and some coral but that's it.

[El Scorpio]

I've got a Fiji orangetail that's a Canthigaster puffer like the Valentini. I do have to agree with the consensus that 24g is too small for a toby, I'd say you'd need a 30 gallon at a minimum. I've got my orangetail in a 40 gallon breeder with a sleeper goby and a small amount of live rock (think 'rubble on the sea floor' instead of 'reef' and you'll have the right idea). She seems perfectly happy with this setup, and often can be seen swimming around in the open areas of the tank.

To answer your original question though, tobies are Omnivores by definition. I feed my Orangetail frozen mysis and krill shrimp, mussels and squid. She also enjoys hunting down and devouring live ghost shrimp, and chewing on pond snails. She will also occasionally eat seaweed and graze on the small patch of hair algae growing on the live rock. Tobies most likely won't have anything to do with flakes, however. Tobies don't have very big stomachs compared to other fish of similar size, so it's better to feed them small amounts 3 times a day rather than one large meal once a day. When I give Camille ghost shrimp, I usually only give her 3 or 4 of them at a time. Being a freshwater shrimp, they won't last but maybe a day or two in saltwater.