baby fahaka feeding

[apachepufferman]

hello all i'm a very new member to the forum but I have been reading for quite some time. Anywho..... I just aquired a fahaka puffer from my lfs mainly because they had no clue how big he was gonna get and I didn't want some fool to purchase him and keep him in a 30gal or 55 gal since he is only 3" or so now; they also talked me into buying their arrowhead puffer at the same time.. so Two new tanks in one day....i don't know what came over me!!! My main concern with the fahaka is feeding him. How much and how regularly. He loves the bloodworms I feed him and he has some snails in the tank now...which he ignores...i have been putting bloodworms in everyday and he has eaten it all by the time I get home from work. He eats till he is full on the initial drop of food and then whats left is gone when I get home. I'm sure that my peacock eel is eating some to. Is this wrong, right indifferent? I just want him to not be stunted and to be healthy. He is in a 55 gal right now and i will have to see how fast he grows over the next month to know when i will have to upgrade to the 120 gal. My lfs has a full tank set up stand pump and all the accesories for a price I dont think i can pass up so he may have his new permanent home sooner than i thought.

[Pufferpunk]

Check out the feeding articles in our Library. I'd be concerned about that peacock.

What do you mean by 2 new tanks? It sounds like you already had the peacock set up in one?

[groovitudedude]

I'm sure that my peacock eel is eating some to. Is this wrong, right indifferent? I just want him to not be stunted and to be healthy. He is in a 55 gal right now and i will have to see how fast he grows over the next month to know when i will have to upgrade to the 120 gal.

How does he get along with the peacock? How big is the eel?

[apachepufferman]

I actually purchased the 2 eels the same day as the puffers. I figured if they puffers started bugging the eels they could always hide under the substrate to get away. unfortunately my zigzag eel that i put in with my arrowhead decided to try to get into my water filter and got chopped up in the motor the same day I got him home. I just checked tonight and the peacock eel is just chilling right next to my fahaka. They don't seem to mind each other. The eel is only about three inches long so he is very young yet. My fahaka seems to be a very subdued and not supper explorative of the tank. I do admit that I need more stuff for him in the tank. I just have some bog wood and two big plants. I am goin to try to grow some live plants with him I just havn't decided which ones and i'm not real sure how to go about it. I will have to spend some time and the lfs and get some more education on how to grow plants and also to get the bulbs for it to.

[apachepufferman]

What do you mean by 2 new tanks? It sounds like you already had the peacock set up in one?

I had no intentions of getting either puffer. I have my lfs looking for some saps and gobbies and they called me and told me that they just got in the fahaka....so I went and looked and bought the arrowhead and the fahaka...i felt bad for the arrowhead he had been in there for about a month or so; i guess he really did have a face only a mother (father in this case ) could love. So I bought the lil guys and the 55 gal for the fahaka and pump and such that day and set up the tanks waited a week for the new media to mix with my old media and then went and brought them home for the lfs. They are both doin well I think. I just set up a guppy tank yesterday to breed them for the arrowhead. that way I know they are healthy and i don't spend all that money getting feeders for him.

one last thing i was reading through some more sections on the fahaka and someone said there 11 month old is about 8" or more do they really grow that fast? And does that mean i have a 3 month old fahaka?

my arrowhead is 4+" so I'm pretty sure he is almost full grown so I don't know how old he could be but I definately know he is way happier with me I gave him some sand substrate and he burries himsels to his eyes everychance he can get its the coolest thing!

i think i'm gonna try to get some pics of all my puffers up here tommorrow. hopefully my dwarfs come out to play....

[grubbster]

They can gorw fast - some say up to an inch a month for the first year. Mine was about 2" in Jan and is now probably close to 6" so doing well. You may be over feeding at the moment, this would cause the fish to rest an awful lot and so not be swimming around so much. Even at the size mine is he only has one feed a day with one day off per week. A feed may be a whole mussel, a couple of cockles, 4 or 5 live shrimps or a portion of bloodworm - but it is usually cleared in minutes and then he goes to rest.

[apachepufferman]

I didn't feed him as much today. He has been lazing around a lot so i will cut back on the feeding. I went to the grocery store today and all they had were oysters and they are pretty big. I bought them anyway i might try to cut one in half and see how that goes.

[flash.dan]

i would keep a eye on the peacock for sure.

Feeding wise when there young i would say every day when there a decent size get them onto cockel mussel (chopped at first) when there about 6" or so you can skip days if you start skipping one day a week then every other day. When he gets 8-10" you can easilly go 2-3 big feeds a week