Baby fahaka

[Mysterio]

Got a little sub 1 inch fahaka last month. Have de-womred (upon forum's advice... Just joined by have been reading for months)

He's in a 125g. When I got him he wasn't eating (only the odd blood worms...) Have tried mussels, brine shrimp, krill, market shrimp... All soaked in garlic. Have a 5g with now hundreds of snails.. have crushed and dropped some in but uninterested. Even have tons of babies now in the 125(sure it will eat later).

Has a fat tummy so not worried... However thought he was getting really sick/blind as it was randomly biting rocks that were beside actual food sorces.... Days later still healthy tummy.. still looks blind biting rocks/glass.

Decided to look closer at gravel he's hitting... And he's actually hunting and eating little grey fish mites(apparently I have thousands.. guess gravel got a little too dirty from all medications and less then normal gravel vacs)

Thought I'd share lol.

[Pufferpunk]

[welcome]
OMG, I am thrilled to hear you put him right into his big tank! I did the same with mine.
I'm glad you figured out why he wasn't eating, I'd do a WC, cleaning the substrate well (they prefer sand to burrow in). Let me know if he starts eating all those goodies you offered him previously.

[Mysterio]

Thanks PufferPunk! Honestly followed all your advise from other posts(like meds for worms first thing/tank size/food ect..)

Sorry for late reply, crazy life with he virus going around lol

Yah I've been doing 30% Dailey vacs( alternating sides to try and avoid getting a mini cycle). So far no go on any foods besides blood worms... Even those he only has a few worms dailey. But he looks almost obese from the little mites as they are almost under control. So I may stop feeding dailey.. but forsure growing now.

Seems like it would rather hunt for live food then dead blood worms/mussels/shrimp. It has tried to take a bite out of some of the bigger bladder snails in there but they are just too big.. the babies should be eye size next week so here's hoping.

Not worried about the teeth yet as it bites the odd rock hunting the small mites.

Did notice when I got him poop was stringy.. so guessing parisites. Now it's just gross the stuff it poops out(ratio size.. I'd be hurting with that lol)

[Pufferpunk]

Try crushing the snails, he'll still get some crunch out of them.

[Mysterio]

I tried still to go. Maybe once all those mites are gone haha

[Mysterio]

Still no luck on mussel/krill/shrimp... But is a murderer when it comes to snails finally... Feed 6 eye sized snails a day and some blood worms (that's after it ate/killed the hundreds that bred in its tank) So far it will only eat the snails and blood worms.

Not growing the 1" per month that everyone says... But definitely growing rounder.. before was more stick like, now it's more egg shaped. Has maybe grown 3/4 of a inch in the two months(weight has prob doubled) but that could be due to the original parasites it came with.

So weird that they change colors. Black markings when resting/water changes... Nice and light with a yellow tinge to the belly when roaming/hunting.

[Pufferpunk]

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