ideas on feeding my dwarf puffer

[seuadr]

he must be snacking on snails, because i didn't have any unoccupied shells in the tank before him but i'm trying to consider variety and long term food supplies for him. I know that he will eat frozen stuff, cause i've watched him, however, i like the idea of providing live foods.

now, correct me if i am wrong, but, brine shrimp are basically just crunchy and fun, with very little nutritional value, yes?

with that premise in mind, i wonder if things like seed shrimp might be viable for him as a sometimes food. I'd like to try to cultivate things like this at home, cause, although my lfs is awesome (preusses pets, for those of you that have had the pleasure) i like the idea of being "self sufficient"

has anyone tried breeding any/all of the following:

seed shrimp
mysis shrimp
microfex worms
blackworms
bloodworms
daphina

obviously snails are an option and i am looking at setting up a snail bowl with the express intent of introducing MTS into it, as well as pond snails as i am able.

any other suggestions?

anyone have a steady supplier of any of the above that are reasonable to ship on a regular basis?

[bertie 83]

Crunch is not an issue with dps, their incisors do not seem to grow like other puffers. Mysis do not tend to provide crunch or nutrition. Small shrimp are fun for dps to chase. Mts would be a viable option as the dps rarely try to shell stomp and they are good tank housekeepers, pond snails are your best bet as they breed amazingly fast and would also provide good puffer housekeeping, also if your dp has a big gob and does try to chomp a pond snails shell it is unlikely to shatter his teeth, with mts their is always a risk of tooth shattering. Never bred the other foods just buy them frozen

[RTR]

My personal preferences for DP feeding are live California blackworms fed via commercial perforated cones and home-cultured ramhorn snails. A snallish terra cotta sauver resting of the subatrate will capture most of the worms which fall to the bottom while preventing them for burrowing into the substrate. This gives the shyer feeders a chance at the worms while more dominant fish investigate the cone itself. You may need to use two feeding stations to allow females to have access to the live worms.

I have used live ghost shrimp as scavengers in planted DP tanks, but I do not use them in potential breeding tanks. I am not convinced that the male DPs can protect the nest from shrimp predation on the eggs. Clumps of Java moss up in the plants are used for nests by the males in my tanks.

FWIW, YMMV

[Pufftastic]

My DP eats mostly live blackworms, which I buy at the LFS. They can live for a couple weeks in the fridge if you're diligent about rinsing them. I've never tried to raise the worms myself.

Occasionally I'll get some live brine shrimp just for fun -- he loves them. And my LFS gut-loads them with something, i forget what, that makes them bright orangey-pink. But they're a treat, not a staple.

My DP refuses anything that's not live. Picky fellow.

[Pufferpunk]

+1, my spoiled brats will only eat live blackworms. I soak them in Vita-Chem & feed the worms finely ground old fish flakes & plankton.

[RTR]

Actually I keep my live blackworms at slightly lower room temp since the old bar refrigerator died years back, so I "feed" them much as PP does. I do not load up the boxes as I did when the 'fridge was working - luckily I have a good stock of worm boxes, so can spread them out enough to keep them oxygenated.

Have they started making the blue worm boxes again yet? That was a real loss when the mold broke for those.

[Pufferpunk]

Yep, the blue boxes are back. I've been pretty satisfied with the Coolwhip containers.

[RTR]

I am addicted to the blue boxes, especially since I keep them at room temperature now. It makes rinsing so much easier.

[seuadr]

well, i found out that puff will eat bloodworms and brine shrimp now that he is comfy in the tank, but i really like the idea of trying to culture some daphina and snails, possibly even some black worms. I scored a good deal on a used biocube 8 that i am planning on turning into a planted shrimp tank, so that will give me an excellent place to house snails if need be.. and if puff decides he likes shrimp afterall (he has not even really glanced at the ghost shrimp yet) then hopefully i can stock enough to make him really fun crunchy snacks!

anyone ever feed guppy fry or anything like that?

[Pufftastic]

I scored a good deal on a used biocube 8 that i am planning on turning into a planted shrimp tank, so that will give me an excellent place to house snails if need be..

It can be challenging to try to breed snails in a tank with shrimp. Shrimp have been known to eat the tiny baby snails sometimes.

[seuadr]

Thanks for the heads up..had not thought of that..

Guess ill just have to have 3 tanks

[RTR]

+1 to Pufftastic's comments above. That can be expanded to say that one container, whatever size and handling, is best rearing only one food item. Mixing species of feeders is always inefficient at best. Commonly one or the other barely hangs on and is not productive.

[jeromecarlyoung]

I gave up on live worms in the fridge as I was always in the local LFS getting more worms. By the end of the week the worms were not in good shape. I gave up on snails too as they would get one bite from the DP and then be left to rot causing the water to foul. I only throw the odd small one in from time to time now.
Whiteworms were brilliant as I could breed them at home and have a constant fresh supply of worms.
Some worry about the fat content but, digging around on the net, I found Whiteworms are similar to Bloodworm in fat so no worries there.
Here's a link-
http://rainbowfish.angfaqld.org.au/Whitewrm.htm

An odd thing is having a few Moss Balls floating about as I swear my DP finds tiny water insects in these Balls. I think these balls are little reservoirs of potential live food.

Cheers Jerry

[seuadr]

An odd thing is having a few Moss Balls floating about as I swear my DP finds tiny water insects in these Balls. I think these balls are little reservoirs of potential live food.

Cheers Jerry

that might be it! he munches on it from time to time after swimming around it and carefully inspecting it. it is the same movement he makes when stalking a snail!

[RTR]

"Moss" balls are also favored by most captive shrimp - they groom the "moss" (really alga) balls constantly.