The Puffer Forum

Greetings All- To my great surprise, my LFS just received an order of SAPs. I picked two up last night and followed the proper directions for putting them into the tank. I am feeding the SAPs frozen shrimp while I locate a local ramshorn snails breeder.

WHen I dropped the frozen shrimp into the tank, the puffers took a few bites and then basically ignored it. The tiger barbs got to the rest of it. the SAPs have been swimming around the tank but MOSTLY swim in this near vertical position.

is this a normal adjustment period and when they get hungry enough they'll get more aggressive for the shrimp? Thanks!!!

Was the frozen shrimp still frozen when you put it into the tank? If that's the case, you have the answer there. Puffers are sensitive to low temperature, and that also means the food. They also can get trouble with their digestion if fed frozen food (not thawed).

If the shrimp wasn't frozen, it's also normal for puffers to use some days to adjust to their new environment. Some puffers handles changes pretty bad too, and need more time than others.

A third thing is that some puffers needs to be tricked into taking dead food. They are not used to not hunt things that doesn't need hunting. This is mostly a problem with lurkers (like suvattii and palembangensis), but it can be a problem with so called active hunters too (actually, here at my house, I've found the active hunters the most difficult - which proves that puffers don't read the books written about them It was my GSP who gave me the hardest time). I don't know how SAPs are in this case, as I've never owned one. But I can imagine that it can be a problem with some specimens.

thanks for the help. yes it was 'frozen' shrimp. it is actually Mysis Shrimp and comes in small cubs in a large packet. i will defrost the cube tomorrwn ad brush it into the tank instead of just putting the frozen cube in.

do you use ghost shrimp too?

Sure, just not as a staple because they are not nutritious. My SAP would not eat live shrimp for some reason but im sure yours will gobble them down, get your hands on some pond snails though that ideally would be their staple

Bloodworms.... they will eat those i bet and so will your barbs. My SAPs have always ignored shrimp when I put them in there.
thats what i feed my community tank with every day and one or two days of flake for the non puffer fish in there.

Read a couple threads on the saps in here.
It could be the decor, there teeth and the current. These all come into play with SAPs. Every Sap that I have had (5 total) have all taken to frozen bloodworms with no problem. In fact all my fish other than my Arrowhead have taken to bloodworms with no problem. Even the ones that supposedly would only eat fruit or flake food.

Give them a day or two to settle in and just know that they will always pace the glass and be swimming constantly. They will swim in the center of the tank but mostly they like will probably do the vertical swim on the walls of the tank.