The Puffer Forum

I took someones suggestion on the Fahaka eating something that isnt alive.

Ya, he isnt into it. He will only eat live food. I had some shrimp, i cut it up, i put it on a stick to wiggle it around, i plopped some in the tank, i put it right in front of him.
No way! he looks at it, then just sits there. even swims up to it to see if its something like alive and then turned away.
It looks like only live foods.
My green spotted puffers would eat almost anything that was shellfish, brine shrimp, anything,
but my Red Eye Puffer only ate live too.

Hasnt touched the snails yet though. its been a couple days.

he has eaten almost all of the ghost shrimp though. is this an ok diet? Ghost shrimp?

I know they need the shell of the snail for the beak. he murdered a fiddler crab..but didnt eat it. just killed it.

any ideas on anything else??? he is only 2 1/2 inches long

i've noticed that sometimes they don't eat it because it's on the stick, try putting a whole or half of a shrimp on fishing string and dangle it, eventually he'll learn to attack it when you just toss it in, give him some time, and ghost shrimp are nutritionally the same as us eating cheetos so get him on better foods, starve that fish untill he has no choice but to eat dead shrimp, and mussels, and cockles, and crab legs, etc..

Wow..that bad huh. So hes a junk food puffy....hahaha.
he gets no more of that then. I want him super healthy and will do whatever it takes!!
I will try that tomarrow. right now he is full on those ghost shrimp. noone told me they were that bad for him, or that they were bad at all.
I wouldnt have given him any.
he wont eat the snails either. i think he just likes to hunt those darn ghost shrimp.
shrimp and muscles for now on.

Mine likes shrimps and snails but most days he gets defrosted mussel. We used to cut it up but now I can hand feed him whole ones. Some days he wants nothing though so I think we're feeding 4 times a week, maybe 5 if he is searching for food.

you can always give him ghost shrimp as a snack, something to hunt, it's just they are not a good staple, just like cheetos arnt a good staple. and if you want to make them a little better you can gut load them with algae discs(gut loading means you let the ghost shrimp eat veggies before you feed them to the puffer in case you didn't know)

I feed my fahaka bloodworms. I have a plastic tube that goes to the bottom of the tank and i just break off a chunk of frozen bloodworms and put it in the tube when it thaws out it sinks to the bottom. Then i take the tube out and my fahaka chomps down on them. I have found that all fish seem to like worms. They are also good food for them to.

If he doesn't eat dead foods the first day you present it don't feed him the ghost shrimp. He can go a few days without food and then he will be more willing to eat dead food. He will get to the snails eventually he is still a baby and is just learning what is and isn't food right now.

Mine has figured out that when the tube is in the tank it is close to food time and he tries to blow the tube out of the way like puffers do to rocks to get at snails in the substrate.

ya i agree...no more ghost shrimp for him. hahaha

i will try the shrimp on the line again tomarrow....
and the next day...and some mussel....
and whatever it takes...lol.

My husband, son, and myself just LOVE puffers...and my 5 year old son has watched that you tube video of the crayfish getting eaten probably a hundred times. he wants our puffy to get that big. hahaha.

I can only HOPE!!!!!

Crystal K

YAY!!!
Today he was chasing the 1 guppie left and the 2 left ghost shrimp, i could tell he was hungry,
i dropped in a defrosted shrimp and i didnt think he would go for it..but he did eventually.
took a few good bites, then laid next to it full. hahaha.
hope this is a good path. LOL
i will try a mussle tomarrow for variation.

That's great news! Keep up the good work.

ghost shrimp aren't bad for them, just mostly water so not much nutritional value...

gut load them first and that is better, but don't cut them out all together, these fish are wild, it's fun for them to hunt, and ghost shrimp are nearer their natural diet than fish...

oh...gut load with what do u think?? i dont think i have ever seen one eat. haha. they just dont live long here..puffy likes to hunt and chase them. lol.

keep them in the bag for a few hours just floating on the top of the tank, and put an algae wafer in, or something like that..

..you know, the sort of thing that you would feed a plec..