The Puffer Forum

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My little female has trouble with bloodworms because they are a little too large and the other two adults take her food before she can get it down. Also, she snubs mysis shrimp and loves glassworms...But little pieces of mussel go down quick and she loves it. You can buy a huge bag of mussels at Walmart for like $3-4. I just thaw and remove the meat from the shell and tear off tiny pieces to tweezer feed. All of my fish love mussels.

Does anybody know if mussels are nutritious?

JRC3 THANK YOU!!!!

You just reminded me that I have a HUGE bag of muscles and clams in the freezer. I'll try it out!

ohhh and yes muscles are nutritious.

he/she is cute ")

Muscles didn't work. They are completely ignoring it :/ He's on the hunt for snails or something.

Yeah, I've had a DP that ONLY wanted live foods: snails, blackworms, that's it! I had luck feeding blackworms out of an eyedropper, and after a while of that sneaking in bloodworms the same way. They didn't catch on that their menu had changed too busy snacking. Once Tina established that the eyedropper was a source of worms, she didn't question what was in there! Can't get them to eat mysis as well this way, though. They know what is a worm and what isn't, that's for sure.

Though, JP, if your puff is scared of tongs, maybe it would shy from a dropper... Mine seem to go crazy since they can see the worm through the plastic. I bet a huge puff could take a chunk of plastic off trying to get through! EEK

You could try mealworms and scoop the flesh from their skin. A cup of 50 cost like $2-3 and will last for several months in the fridge.

Good luck with the little guy.

J-P wrote:Muscles didn't work. They are completely ignoring it :/ He's on the hunt for snails or something.

did you tried soaking food in garlic.

JRC3 wrote:My little female has trouble with bloodworms because they are a little too large and the other two adults take her food before she can get it down. Also, she snubs mysis shrimp and loves glassworms...But little pieces of mussel go down quick and she loves it. You can buy a huge bag of mussels at Walmart for like $3-4. I just thaw and remove the meat from the shell and tear off tiny pieces to tweezer feed. All of my fish love mussels.

Does anybody know if mussels are nutritious?

I bought a bag of frozen mussels at Wal-Mart here while back for the same price as yours but found out all they sale are fully cooked. I was told that you can not feed puffer's cooked mussels from this forum. Now I can not use them. Still can't find pure raw frozen mussels without salt at any grocery store.

FADE2BLACK_1973 wrote:

JRC3 wrote:My little female has trouble with bloodworms because they are a little too large and the other two adults take her food before she can get it down. Also, she snubs mysis shrimp and loves glassworms...But little pieces of mussel go down quick and she loves it. You can buy a huge bag of mussels at Walmart for like $3-4. I just thaw and remove the meat from the shell and tear off tiny pieces to tweezer feed. All of my fish love mussels.

Does anybody know if mussels are nutritious?

I bought a bag of frozen mussels at Wal-Mart here while back for the same price as yours but found out all they sale are fully cooked. I was told that you can not feed puffer's cooked mussels from this forum. Now I can not use them. Still can't find pure raw frozen mussels without salt at any grocery store.

True. Cooked food is not good for puffers.

I go to like fish market, I buy fresh raw and freeze it my self.

PolishPuff wrote:

J-P wrote:Muscles didn't work. They are completely ignoring it :/ He's on the hunt for snails or something.

did you tried soaking food in garlic.

Yep tried the garlic too.

I'm going to see if the LFS can order in some blackworks.

In the meantime I put more cherry shrimp in there, mostly females so, hopefully the DPs will pick off the fry.

FADE2BLACK_1973 wrote:I bought a bag of frozen mussels at Wal-Mart here while back for the same price as yours but found out all they sale are fully cooked. I was told that you can not feed puffer's cooked mussels from this forum. Now I can not use them. Still can't find pure raw frozen mussels without salt at any grocery store.

I think mine were uncooked but I don't have the original package to check. When I bought them I knew they had to be raw but I drove all over town to find them and I hope I didn't get so excited that when I found them I missed that they were cooked. Why are they bad if they are cooked? Is it because they loose nutrition? I usually only feed mussels about every 8th time or so with the exception of the little DP recently.


*edit*

Crap, I think this was them. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Mussels/14654146

JRC3 wrote:

FADE2BLACK_1973 wrote:I bought a bag of frozen mussels at Wal-Mart here while back for the same price as yours but found out all they sale are fully cooked. I was told that you can not feed puffer's cooked mussels from this forum. Now I can not use them. Still can't find pure raw frozen mussels without salt at any grocery store.

I think mine were uncooked but I don't have the original package to check. When I bought them I knew they had to be raw but I drove all over town to find them and I hope I didn't get so excited that when I found them I missed that they were cooked. Why are they bad if they are cooked? Is it because they loose nutrition? I usually only feed mussels about every 8th time or so with the exception of the little DP recently.


*edit*

Crap, I think this was them. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Mussels/14654146

Yep that's is the same think I have in my freezer right now. Says on the back of the bag "They've been clean, cooked , and vacuumed sealed. That's why I did not feed them to my Fahaka . I still been looking over all the grocery stores for raw frozen mussels in the shell and raw in the shell shrimp without anything added like salt and such.

FADE2BLACK_1973 wrote:... I still been looking over all the grocery stores for raw frozen mussels in the shell and raw in the shell shrimp without anything added like salt and such.

Go back to the meat/seafood counter, they usually have large raw shrimp that you buy by the pound. I bought a few once for 0.25 to see if my puff would eat it. He didn't so I didn't waste too much. I may try it again to see what happens.

Live blackworms? Are they available to you? My DPs all chowed down on those - it was a big part of their diet. I used the worm cones with a terra cotta saucer under it on the substrate -the saucer cathes the missed worms and allow the non-alpha fish a chance at them. It also keeps them from establishing in the substrate.