The Puffer Forum

It's me again, and I'm still trying to figure out what Bob, the Dwarf Puffer needs to stay a happy Puffer. I have heard that Puffers need snails to keep their teeth trimmed. Since Dwarf Puffers are so small, what sort of snails should I be looking to get for him? Seems like most snails are too big. Also can anyone tell me what else I should be feeding my Puffer? I've got some frozen bloodworm that I feed my tropical fish and I've been putting some in Bob's tank, but not sure he's keen on that. Any help in this area would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again my dear Puffer people.

I don't know about the food, but I do know about the snails. I breed black mystery snails. The babies are tiny enough that the puffers can eat them. My baby puffer before he died would gobble them up. He was not even an inch long too. You could try getting some common apple snails and breeding them. And beleive me when I say it, puffers will try if they are motivated. My large GSP, Shuo, will take on ANY snail. Even the Largest Black Mystery (Zoom) which is almost twice his size of 2.5 inches. And he very nearly wins too.

Dwarf puffers are so small, they do best in tanks with live plants. They spend a lot of their time hunting down all sorts of little critters.. baby snails, baby shrimp, "bugs" for lack of a better term.

Mine always liked live blackworms, and they would also eat New Life Spectrum small fish formula, but in general, they preferred to hunt their own food. My tank was extremely heavily planted though, with several species of snails and red cherry shrimp breeding like crazy, so they had plenty of hunting.

If you have live plants or even just a lot of decor, it could be they're just not so interested in the food you are offering because they're hunting their own.

How long have had Bob? When I first got my Dps, it took a week for them to accept my food. Like Myaj said, otherwise tey'd be hunting down their own food. Now I tweezer feed them and they love mussels, bloodworms are ok and scallop and shrimp are ok. They also love snails, and don't worry about the size. I guess about the size of a big green pea is good, as they will not really try to break the shell open, they'll just aim for the meat in the shell opening! I breed my own pondsnails and ramshorn snails and they love it!

Also, dwarf puffers don't generally have overgrown teeth problems..