The Puffer Forum

Hi
My friend has given us his 6month old gsp.
it's our first morning with him - put him in the tank last night.
I gave him a snail and he just sucked out the inside and left the shell. Aren't they meant to crunch on the snail shell?? I got 30 ramshorn snails and put them in my tropical tank in a breeding container. How many smails are you meant to feed them? The guy who gave us him only gave him snails once a week.
He seems quite happy but doesn't seem that interesteed in eating at the moment.
i tried some clam but he just looked at it and swam away!!!

Sorry just a bit paranoid as it is our first puffer
Thanks
Nicki

Haha, picky little fellow! Over time, I'm sure he'll warm up to your food. He might just be skeptical because you're a new person feeding him.

If he's not eating the shell, you might want to crush the snail before feeding it to him. That way he HAS to eat the shell. It all depends on your willingness to crush a snail, though.

I hope he's doing well! You need to post up some pictures of the cutie!

I would give him at least a few days to settle in before I got concerned about him eating (or not eating).

What size tank is he in? If he has enough room with plenty of hiding spaces then he should get comfortable with his new home pretty quickly.

He is in a 150litre tank - i think that is 33 uk gallons

Seems awful big for one small fish!!!!

Got half sand substrate and half crushed coral sand
Lots of caves and hiding holes
i put plastic plants in

Will try and post some pictures up tomorrow

Believe me, it's not too big! A lot of people severely underestimate the size of tank these guys need to be happy. For reference I have a Figure 8 puffer in a 190L tank, I can tell he's a lot happier than when he was in the 18gal QT tank.

That tank sounds just perfect!! I agree with giving him some time to settle in. Congrats on the new puffer!!

Congrats on the puffer!!

Check out the library article, and profile in pufferpedia and you should be well on your way.

Here are some pictures I took last night

I like your tank and the cute puffer looks great. How big is your new friend?

stormycat wrote:Hi
My friend has given us his 6month old gsp.
it's our first morning with him - put him in the tank last night.
I gave him a snail and he just sucked out the inside and left the shell. Aren't they meant to crunch on the snail shell?? I got 30 ramshorn snails and put them in my tropical tank in a breeding container. How many smails are you meant to feed them? The guy who gave us him only gave him snails once a week.
He seems quite happy but doesn't seem that interested in eating at the moment.
i tried some clam but he just looked at it and swam away!!!

Sorry just a bit paranoid as it is our first puffer
Thanks
Nicki

Congrats!
Different Puffers apply different techniques when it comes to snails.
Some are crunchers, some are slurpers...
The size of the snail is also a factor.

Check out advice on feeding in our article collection.
Loads of nice reading there!

What salinity do you keep it in?

Hi

Just tried to measure him just over an inch
thought he was nearer 2" but he's not

the salinity is 1.006

Tried him on 2 more snails at lunch today. He sucked some out then left the rest. Thinking they may be a bit too big as he is only small, we took them out, crushed them and put them back in - hey presto he darted over and scoffed the lot!! His belly seemed quite nice and round after just 2 snails. They don't need a lot do they? But he is only young so I suppose he will eat more as he gets bigger. My husband keeps telling me to stop "faffing" over him and if he is hungry he will eat. Also he is still getting used to his new tank.

I have some frozen clams and prawns in the freezer for him to try on.
Where we live - on a very small island off the UK - it is quite hard to get snails as there are only 3 fish shops here. So I am hoping to be able to breed some. Fingers crossed!!!

Yeah, it's easy for us to get really attached to puffers, haha. You'd be best to employ the crushing-snail tactic once a week or so to make sure his teeth stay trimmed. As long as you don't give into his cute begging techniques, he should be fine with one plump belly a day (until he gets a bit older, heh).

that's a cool tank

Thanks very much

I like it, hope my puffer likes it too!!!