Arothron Mappa, stubborn eater

[gdsentropy]

Where to start...

Well...I love my 9" Mappa, but he is terribly stubborn when it comes to crunchy food.
He isn't interested. He just. Doesn't. Care.

Any tips for getting him interested in crablegs, shell-on raw shrimp, ramshorns, etc..?

My other puffs have an eat first, think later approach, so they are no trouble. Sometimes it seems like they wolf down some random thing, then: "Wait...was I suppose to eat that?! What WAS that?!"

But the Mappa....he is fickle. This week he likes frozen krill, another week New Life Spectrum 6mm Thera+, the following Formula 1..but he could not possibly care less about crunchy food if he tried.

And he's lazy. My Mappa in one word, definitely Lazy. Except when he feels like spraying you from 6' away for feeding the Oscar first, or when he tries to swim through the glass to get to you because FOOD NOW OR ELSE HUMAN..lol

He eats approximately a golfball+ of krill or Thera+ for each of his three meals. Thats three meals *per day*.

I have an exotics vet coming over Friday to check all of my fish out, just because.
I'll pass along anything he says which could be useful, assuming he remembers the appointment this many months from scheduling. He will also trim teeth if the need presents itself (no clove oil).

Anyway, thanks for any tricks you all may have.

Ian

[Pufferpunk]

library/feeding/problems-feeding-your-puffer/

[gdsentropy]

I guess it would have helped if I had stated the fact I came across that article in TPF before buying him, over a year ago.

I like to research my fish before buying them.
I have had him for over a year, actually almost two now. He was just a little golfball when I got him.

So, moving the food doesn't work and he doesn't seem interested in living crabs, snails or shrimp.

What gets me, is he likes frozen and dried krill...even pellets [which certianly aren't a naturally recognized food]...

Ian

[sgtmyers88]

Where to start...

Well...I love my 9" Mappa, but he is terribly stubborn when it comes to crunchy food.
He isn't interested. He just. Doesn't. Care.

My other puffs have an eat first, think later approach, so they are no trouble. Sometimes it seems like they wolf down some random thing, then: "Wait...was I suppose to eat that?! What WAS that?!"

And he's lazy. My Mappa in one word, definitely Lazy. Except when he feels like spraying you from 6' away for feeding the Oscar first, or when he tries to swim through the glass to get to you because FOOD NOW OR ELSE HUMAN..lol

The content in your first post is hilarious.

[defool89]

Crush some shell and expose the meat.. mayne he just doesn't know or remember or needs motivation to get to the good stuff inside. .

[Pufferpunk]

I guess it would have helped if I had stated the fact I came across that article in TPF before buying him, over a year ago.

And this is your 1st time posting???

How do his teeth look? I'd withhold all other foods, especially krill.

[gdsentropy]

sgtmyers88: Thank you.
defool89: Ahh...that is indeed a good idea! I'll give that a try, maybe it will make him finally go for the crab.

>>Snip
And this is your 1st time posting???

How do his teeth look? I'd withhold all other foods, especially krill.

His teeth were getting a little longer than I would have liked around September, during his latest bout of spurning everything but dried krill, but once he decided frozen krill and NLS Pellets were good once more he seems to have taken care of the issue on his own...this time. He chews those pellets quite well. At any rate, potential issues with teeth were what prompted me to find a puffer doctor in the first place. I have a decent amount of puffs, so he will be checking them all out, though I doubt he will find any issue.

I am certian that unless I can keep Mappa switching up crunchy food, his teeth will become a serious issue at some later point.

As far as my having only recently joined and posted...honestly with the sheer amount of forums, sites, journals and random literature I sift through in an average week, multiplied by the volume of things which I have my tendrils into [Sciences, Maths, Programming stuff, Guns, Fish, Reef...you get the idea]...if I posted everywhere from which I aggregate information, I would only have time to post. I have about 6-8 terabytes of Stuff(tm), a pile which is constantly growing.

I was at one time very active in the Reef community, between 94-2000 I wrote a large number of articles on skimmers and refugia [people STILL havent tried some of the methods I outlined lol], and was quite active on #reefs. Some of my stuff is still out there, floating around. I digress....the essence of my point is that I only rarely engage any form of social media now, for a diverse variety of reasons.

It will be quite difficult to keep Mappa from other foods, given that he lives with a number of other similarly aged [but smaller] puffs; I'd need to do it for all, or he will just nab their food. Even worse...they may ALL learn to squirt me....I can imagine gallons of water at a time flowing towards me in a hail of puffer jets...

Krill feeding leaves me with an impression that I would expect one might have were they to feed their child not but candybars...as well I've heard Krill can be like Puffer meth; I know that I can barely get my hand out of the way fast enough sometimes. I have heard of angry puffers pulling aerials and mellon-balling lumps of flesh from their humans too..

I think I may need to get my wife on here too, until January 2013 she will be spending more time with the ol'puffalumps than I.

Ian

[gdsentropy]

The vet rescheduled, something about an Alpaca.

Oddly enough, I have been informed that Mappa has magically started eating shrimp and snails....I'm not kidding. I post here, then a few days layer, with no intervention, he (?) decides that, hey, I like crunchy stuff now. Its like...like he *knows*... O__O'

Nearly 2 years, and he coincidentally starts eating properly days after posting here.... I'm not sure what to make of that, but I'll take it. I hope it lasts. Weird puffer...

Thanks!

Ian

[gdsentropy]

Quick update, which should summarize current state feeding behavior neatly;

Mappa (I know...such a creative name right?) continues to eat raw shell-on shrimp, and has responded well to blue crab (in shell) as well. He will greedily eat two whole 3" shrimp if offered, and makes short work of blue crab sections.

Using kitchen shears to cube off 1" sections of chitin encased crab flesh worked well to pique his interest, and continues to work as a mechanisim of moderating the total waste produced in the act of eating, due to not providing any more than he cares to eat in a given feeding session.

We will be trying "Johnny Blue" mussels as well this week, because they have shells of inferior thickness to those of typical mussels [so the seafood clerk claims] and certianly less than that of oysters. My criteria was that the mussels be crushable in a fashion similar to walnuts when pressed between thumb and forefinger, or ones palms.

We use Seachem vitamin food additives as well with no scheduled pattern for all but pellet food. New Life Spectrum Thera+ remains popular with the puffs.

Thanks for the advice to expose flesh of the target food item, that has been useful.

I still find the coupling between comment on Mappas behavior and its modification somewhat disturbing. There have been a few more instances of "build it and they will come" coincidence since this, and is starting to make me wonder about this fish, despite everything that my knowledge of statistics and piscine neuroanatomy would have me beleive. O__O'

Ian

[gdsentropy]

I traveled back to Knightdale Friday, and purchased some "Johnny Blue" Mussels for the purpose of food for my puffs.

I did smack one with a hammer to expose some of its meat. My wrasse loved it, and stole the whole carcass from the jaws of my tongs more than once..and Mappa ran away, of course...mushing himself into a pathetic blob between the leftmost powerhead and the back of his current tank..silly puff...though now he will probably eat them without reservation, since I posted here lol!

Anyway, the point of my posting this (and I always have an at least decent reason) is to see if anyone had suggestions for feeding mussels to puffs, beyond simply hammer smashing their little mussel faces.

Carolina Raw Shrimp are well loved, as are Blue Crab segments, NLS Thera+, Formula One, Ramshorn Snails, Krill and Hikari sticks.

I noted the request for information regarding Arothron Mappa...one bit of advice is do NOT leave items having cords in the tank with your cordnomming capable puffs. I had a close call once, then I thought a bit and balanced some chemical equation possibilities...

Electrolysis of saltwater can produce some nasty compounds. Think H2, O2 (yup oxygen), H2SO4, H2S, HCl and Cl (if you have foolishly added non-RO water), and other interesting things depending on your salt mix and additives.

Obviously you can lose your prized puffs too, but if it happens when you are asleep, and doesn't trip your breaker (it likely won't), you might lose more than your puff buddies...so just say no to cords. The moral of the story is bet in favor of chaos, not fortune.

Ian / [GDS-Entropy]

[arrivalanche]

So I was lucky enough to have my girlfriend surprise me with a mappa a few days ago (we've been looking for mths). My other puffers eat like pigs when it comes to clams on the half shell. The mappa on the other hand would not eat. He didn't seem interested at all. As a treat we go but live fiddler crabs and let them hunt them. I tried this with the mappa and man did that do it! 5 mins later it was eating clams too. I really think some fish are shipped so quickly that they are still wild and don't want prepared food. I'm just so glad this worked because we love this new guy.

[gdsentropy]

So I was lucky enough to have my girlfriend surprise me with a mappa a few days ago (we've been looking for mths).

Congratulations!
I absolutely love my mappa. He is lazy as hell but he is my favorite.
They grow really fast, but I am sure you know this. Just be prepared to give him a 300G+ home in a year or two.

My other puffers eat like pigs when it comes to clams on the half shell.

That is the same experience I have had, with regard to appetite of the rest of my puffs, just not with clams as they aren't big enough yet.

I really think some fish are shipped so quickly that they are still wild and don't want prepared food.

I think they aren't really happy at first; mine looked like a bummed out black Roma Tomato for the longest time.
He still gets what would appear to be the piscine analogue of depressed sometimes. I do not know if he remembers the freedom of the ocean or not, but since even vorticella have 5 second memories and the pufferbrain is many magnitudes of order more complex [since, you know, protists don't have brains], I can only guess at their intelligence.

I think in our arrogant hubris, humans tend to underestimate the emotional and intellectual capacity of animals, and as thus, we fail to adequately provide sufficient stimulation, interaction and enrichment for them.

The mappa on the other hand would not eat. He didn't seem interested at all.

I could only get mine to eat Krill [aka Puffercrack] for a long time.
As he got older he discovered that Hikari Marin A was awesome. He just watched the other puffers gobble it up, and decided to give it a go. It went like this:
nom....NOMNOMNOM

His introduction to New Life Spectrum Thera+ went the same way. He loves that, he is like Kirby, going from kibble to kibble, sucking it right on up.

As a treat we go but live fiddler crabs and let them hunt them. I tried this with the mappa and man did that do it! 5 mins later it was eating clams too.

I'll have to try that. I wonder if they can be gutloaded?

I'm just so glad this worked because we love this new guy.

Aren't they just the best? I love my puffers.


Ian

[arrivalanche]

Heres a pic or our guy "scribbles". Hes a hungry hunter now.

[arrivalanche]

We are also looking at houses right now with the plan of a new 500+ gallons for them within the year. Its all for the puffers in the end. The current tank will become a reef for my office.

[Pufferpunk]

Pic is way too big. All I see is a snout.