The Puffer Forum

plurmaster wrote:I feed my DPs once a day.

What do you feed them?
All I have right now in my fish food storage is: flakes, hikari "first-bites," betta bites, algae wafers, and freeze dried bloodworms.
Anything special I need to get for them?
If I can't raise my own snails, does Petco sell them? I can't remember...

frozen bloodworms works for me. petco doesnt sell snails but u can ask them to give you ramshorn snails for free becoz they are pest which got into their tank from the shippment they order. You want to get snails that are the same size as their eye .

Ramshorn are usually sold, but Pond snails are free though. remember not to get Malaysian trumpet snails (look like an ice cream cone) cause they can potentially hurt your puffer's teeth... not sure it matters a dwarf size though...

Ok, so I can't feed them dried bloodworms everyday?
I guess I'm confused about what they eat.

So far:
1 dwarf puffer and 2 otos in a 5g tank
Feed the dwarf puffer everyday with (?) and once a week ?# snails (no malasian trumpets)
Ramshorn are sold, pond snails are free.
Feed the otos with the algae and algae wafers occasionally.

Anything wrong with that list? What do I feed them everyday and how many snails once a week?

I'll stop by Petco sometime this week (I hope) and see what they have regarding puffers and snails.
Thanks!

Would dwarf puffers eat swordtail fry?

Yes, if they managed to catch them.

I just wanted to say that DPs are so much fun I wish I could find some more. Petsmart stopped selling them and now I can't find them. Mine was so sweet he would come up to the front of the tank every time I walked by. I used to call him mommas baby since he would never come to the front for anyone but me . I fed mine freeze dried bloodworms and flake food, he never turned up his nose to anything I gave him. I could never get snails small enough for him to eat but I put one in there and he would come over and bit at it when ever he felt like it. He was the best puffer I ever had, then my 5 gallon which looks just like yours got a crack I had to move him to the only other tank I had, which had a GSP in it and he thought it was a snail and ate his tail (I say he thought it was a snail because my GSP never went after any of my other fish only snails. He was a big baby hee hee)

In which order should I add the fish? Otos first or puffer first? I'm going with 2 otos and 1 puffer.

Is your tank fully cycled?

Your list sounds good to me. I'd add the otos first because otherwise the puff is going to think the tank is all his!

As for food: DPs are known to be sometime picky. Frozen bloodworms are usualy a winner and as I understand it are better food nutrition wise than freeze dry. It's really easy to feed them frowzen bloodworms. I feed mine with tweezers and they grab it from there! They are such glutons!! As for snails, you could get yourself a small 1G tank to raise them, they don't need much really! (There are threads about raising snails in this forum). Mine totaly love snails!! But the rule of feeding them snails as big as their eyes doesn't work because... well... we are talking DWARF puffer, so the size of a DP eye would be a really tiny snail with no meat on him!!! I give them snails about the size of their whole head and they can easily go for a bit bigger. As for the number of snails a week.. what I do is they have one snail meal a week so I add snails until their belly tells me they ate enough.

You can also feed them mussels and shrimp and scallop. When I buy such food for myself, I cook one in just water for the puff and then cut it in tiny pieces. 2 of the 3 really love it, but my little female eats only bloodworms ans snails.

Be warned that at first they might not eat what you offer. That's because they don't know it's food! Keep offering bloodworms everyday until they eat it. Once they realise it's food, they'll come to you all the time and it's easier to untroduce the other food. Don't worry if it takes 4-5 days, they can take it and sometimes you need to wait for them to be very hungry to gather the courage to try your food! Once they know it's good stuff, you won't have problems anymore! One of mine is like a dog now, he'll eat anything I put on a tweezer!! The other 2 are more picky!

Good luck and have fun!

Yes, my tank is cycled. It's been up since Dec. 07.

My mom would most likely kill me if I got another tank (I reached the limit at three )
So do you think I could raise some in a one gallon bowl?

i wouldnt recommand putting a dp in a 1 gal bowl.

plurmaster wrote:i wouldnt recommand putting a dp in a 1 gal bowl.

Haha me neither! I meant the snails. Could I raise snails in a bowl instead of a tank?

Something like this would probablly be better just so they don't climb out.
http://www.petco.com/product/12031/Aqua ... h-Lid.aspx

Hmm. Not a bad idea. I'll check by Petco what they have on sale later on.