4 month dragon puffer diet questions

[Reepha]

So I got a dragon puffer a few weeks ago. My LFS told me they fed him clams on the half shell, well that’s a lie he completely ignores them and when I called to verify they said “he must nOt be used to them” wtf? You said that’s what you fed him? Anyways I looked up his diet and he eats live fish worms and crayfish. He’s pretty small I quarantine the feeders and Medicate in the tank and gutload before feeding with medicated deworming pellets. He first he just murdered every fish chomped it in half and spit it out. But finally he started gobbling down whole fish almost the size of him.


My question is how do I go about getting him to eat something other than live foods? He’s the most active dragon puffer I’ve seen he’s always out peeking up at the surface waiting for a fish to ambush. Swimming among the HEAVY plants (co2 and about 80% plant coverage. And three caves plus he’s made his own cave under some Malawi wood some how. Any advice? He seems happy healthy and active.just don’t want to have to medicate every batch of fish or quarantine them all for a week as I don’t have multiple small tanks

[Pufferpunk]

library/feeding/feeders/
library/feeding/problems-feeding-your-puffer/
https://www.pufferfishenthusiastsworldw ... -caresheet

[Reepha]

library/feeding/feeders/
library/feeding/problems-feeding-your-puffer/
https://www.pufferfishenthusiastsworldw ... -caresheet

Thank you for the links, however I already read them. I tried fishing line tongs etc even tied up a blood worm and wiggled it. No dice. Also why is he just murdering fish and not eating half the time. Also where would be a good place to find a crapton of tiny pest snails for him to pick at. He cleared out 5 the first night. But I can’t find any except mystery’s which are expensive and too big for him at this age.

[Pufferpunk]

You can try the plant tanks at your LFS or big box store.
It has taken me as long as a month to get a fish to eat dead foods.

[Reepha]

You can try the plant tanks at your LFS or big box store.
It has taken me as long as a month to get a fish to eat dead foods.

I just wanted to update you, I’ve successfully medicated 15 minnows and quarantined them for a week. I had tried neons because they were so small I thought he needed a tiny fish. And I heard the minnows aren’t the most nutritious.

Well after two soaking treatments and 1 internal treatment of metro/prazi I dropped in two very large minnows, and he immediately ate the first one whole. Didn’t spit out a bite, about 15 minutes later he found the second one and like the first he ate it whole. This is a 3-4 inch puffer eating minnows nearly half his size. I suspect he didn’t like the taste of the neons. Because he would start to eat them and spit them out every time. So far no minnow has been spit out. If this is what he likes then he can have them, as far as the snails. I’ve found a local guy who is giving me tons

[Pufferpunk]

That's great!

[bengo]

Well after two soaking treatments and 1 internal treatment of metro/prazi I dropped in two very large minnows, and he immediately ate the first one whole. Didn’t spit out a bite, about 15 minutes later he found the second one and like the first he ate it whole. This is a 3-4 inch puffer eating minnows nearly half his size. I suspect he didn’t like the taste of the neons. Because he would start to eat them and spit them out every time. So far no minnow has been spit out. If this is what he likes then he can have them, as far as the snails. I’ve found a local guy who is giving me tons

Good to hear he's eating the minnows. I would still try and mix in some dead shrimp/fish. Might take a while but the more you can get him to accept the better. Never know when you might need an emergency run to the grocery store for shrimp/fish to feed