I have had a F8 puffer for six months now. He is currently about two inches long. About three weeks ago he stopped eating snails. I was feeding him common pond snails that my LFS gave me for free. Now each time I try to get my puffer to eat a snail, which is only about the size of his eye, he doesn't even take an interest and lets the snail sit on the bottom of the tank. Before this started to happen he would eat the snail right after I dropped it in the water before it hit the substrate. I am unable to find any other type of snail to either buy or get for free in my area. I tested the water parameters and ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate are all fine. The SG is 1.005 and the temp is 76 F. He doesn't seem like he is sick because he readily eats krill, brineshrimp, and bloodworms.
I'm worried that my puffer's teeth will grow too big and he won't be able to eat. Is a two inch puffer able to eat cockles or clams? Are cricket exoskeletons hard enough to wear down a puffer's teeth? Does anyone have any suggestions for keeping his teeth in check that may help? I don't want to try trimming his teeth myself unless I have to. Thank you for your help - Tim
Puffer's Teeth Becomming a Problem
Forum rules
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
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susiejames101
- Figure 8 Puffer
- Posts: 100
- Joined: Sun Jun 05, 2005 3:44 pm
- Location: uk
I have a similar problem with my F8 Tim, so will be interested in any replies. For now I am partly crushing bigger snails which she does seem to like and eat happily. I am sure its not such a good workout for her teeth but I can certainly hear her crunching away so I am hoping that is bettter than nothing!!The little snails she was completely ignoring and I was finding them rotting in the tank which I am sure can't be good for her , so i have given up with them for now!!
Good luck
Sue
Good luck
Sue
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rainmaker69
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 19
- Joined: Sun Jun 05, 2005 11:01 am
- Location: Canada
My figure 8's never been lucky enough to have snails as small as his eyes. He routinely crunches through european ramshorns about 3X the size of his eye (he catches them midwater and really works to break into them).
Could the smaller ones be too small to be of interest? Can your fish crunch through bigger ones without your help if you leave them to try?
Eric
Could the smaller ones be too small to be of interest? Can your fish crunch through bigger ones without your help if you leave them to try?
Eric
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rainmaker69
- Puffer Fry
- Posts: 19
- Joined: Sun Jun 05, 2005 11:01 am
- Location: Canada
Some call it a product of a mis-spent youth, I call it Rock n Roll ! 