mbu poo??

[bertie 83]

Stick with what you are doing, the ghost shrimp can just be his cleaners for now. Krill is very addictive to puffers and may be linked to lockjaw so basically do not risk it.

[E78704]

I fed ours a lot of krill and never had any issues because of it. What exactly does "puffer crack" mean?
I would freeze these river shrimps you are describing. Again, the point I am trying to get across is that you want to aim for whole prey items, rather than parts or pieces. A healthy puffer should try to eat any kind of crustacean or shellfish. Snails are fine but bloodworms are not doing him any good, since they are so tiny.

[pufferluver87]

i dont think you understand what im saying e78704.i buy the river shrimp live that look like this http://www.aquaticstoyourdoor.co.uk/Liv ... mp.html.so your saying im supposed to kill them and freeze them.but by doing that how are they gutloaded when there dead?? river shrimp alone are pretty much 98% water and thats no good for my mbu.

i think bertie explained what puffer crack meant by saying they get addicted to it .i have also heard this before bertie.

[bertie 83]

Yes ghosts are mainly water, you could gut load them prior to freezing. Your puffer will soon suss out how to catch them. My fahaka fills slightly with water and as they swim past he expells the water which forces the shrimp to jump right into his mouth, he is terribly lazy.

[E78704]

Here's my simple answer: I would feed your Mbu as much as he will eat, of whatever he will eat, once per day. The faster he gets big, the eaiser it will be to find food for him. During his time with us, I have fed our Mbu the following things...

-Whole crayfish
-frozen krill
-live mussels
-live garden snails
-freshwater crabs

When he was younger, he ate A LOT of krill. Like "daily". We've never noticed any adverse of ill effects from anything we've fed him. I am not telling you what or what not to feed yours, just what our ate/eats.

Best of luck with it.

[bertie 83]

I absolutely agree with feeding lots regularly to young puffers, however you do have to be careful to not make them fatties lol.

[pufferluver87]

well thanks for all your advise ill carry on with the shrimp but ill feed them live once ive gutloaded them well.im not keen on freezeing them.im sure its up to personal preference and id rather carry on with what im doing as hes fine and enjoying his food.hes only young so hes got plenty of time to get used to and enjoy new foods.compared to when i got him he looks like a new puffer.so much healthier so i must be doing something right.all advise is appreciated thanks

[Pufferpunk]

yes there pre cooked

ALWAYS feed raw. Something about cooking them is harmful or difficult to digest. Dadof4 can expound on this.

[Dadof4]

Yes ghosts are mainly water, you could gut load them prior to freezing. Your puffer will soon suss out how to catch them. My fahaka fills slightly with water and as they swim past he expells the water which forces the shrimp to jump right into his mouth, he is terribly lazy.

This is actually rather humorous to watch...

[Dadof4]

And on the cooked food topic....Fish are not designed to digest cooked proteins. Basically put, when heat is applied to protien it changes the structure of the protein, it denatures it and the protein strand then needs different digestive enzymes to break it down. A great example is an egg. When you fry an egg the "white" starts off clear, as heat is applied it starts to turn white and you eat it without problems. If you were to eat it before cooking it would wrek havvock on your digestive system until you were used to eating it that way. You would still get some of the nutrients from it but you would need an increase in a particular digestive enzyme to digest it properly. By cooking the food for a fish they lose the nutrition and protein from that initial non denatured state.