The Puffer Forum

How its going guys im new to the site and i have a hairy puffer i was just wondering what to feed him? All he eats right now is rosies. also wondering on how they behave with other fish.

They treat other fish just like the rosies. Try to get him eating ghost shrimp, earthworms, bloodworms, blackworms, mussels, etc. See the feeding info in the pufferpedia at the top of the page under "learn."

ok thanks for the information

my puffer is 3in. hes very active and seems to like swimming against the powerhead.

It says in the pufferpedia that hairy puffers are piscivores that means they only eat live fish so it will be almost impossible to feed him anything else what do guys think?

You can train him to eat frozen prawn, it's hard and takes a while.

what type of fish do they eat in the wild? I mean what kind of live fish could i feed him that would be nutritious?

are earthworms safe to feed your puffer if their from the baitstore?

You can, nobody has had problems yet, but I never have. When I had my box turtle Tyrone, I learned that most bait shop worms are grown under rabbit hutches and are loaded with nasty bacteria and stuff.

it's up to you really. like I said, nobody has had any problems...

alright thanks wondering also are crayfish hard enough to break down the puffers teeth because he dosent bother the snails?

Crayfish are good, my puffers enjoy them.

i got him eating mealworms and krill now

Mealworms and krill are not very nutritious, and can actually lead to heath problems, but its a good start to get him on "dead" food.

Try some people shrimp from your grocery store. The raw, frozen stuff, not cooked.

I feed nightcrawlers from the bait store and have had no problems yet *KOW*.

Will the krill help with his beak? Also i have squid but i dont know if he will eat that, can't seem to find any earthworms around i think their out of season? I think market shrimp are to big he's only 3in.?

Krill will not really help with teeth and it tends to lead to lockjaw if you feed too much of it.

Squid would probably work, again, uncooked is best. For the market shrimp, you don't have to feed him the whole thing, you can just let him bite pieces off, or cut it up and save it in a ziploc bag in the fridge for later. I do that with my guys.. the burrfish can eat a whole one herself, but the turgidus usually only wants one or two bites (about 1/3 to half a shrimp) and the figure 8 obviously only eats a fraction of that.

Earthworms are out of season right now and can be hard to find. Once the lakes thaw out they'll be back. Winter can be tough if there's not a lot of ice fishing going around, no one bothers to carry them.

And don't give up on the snails either, I'm sure he hunts them down eventually. Just throw them in there live and it will help give him some "hunting" time as well as work on the teeth.