The Puffer Forum

Finally got a juvenile Fahakas puffer. I am thinking of keeping him in a community tank since he is still small maybe he get a chance to learn to be friendly.

Below are some pictures to share





What do you feed them? I know snails, crayfish, pawns, blood worms etc. But i read that they also take feeder fishes just want to confirm this. Btw it don't seem to be eating the ghost shrimps that i got him. Any ideas?

Don't feed him feeder fish, that's the worse thing you can do. There's an article in the library that has all food listed.
Mine eat clams, mussel, shrimp, scallops, crabs, and I can't think of the rest right now. Just check out the article.

look!! he's smiling!!! You can also feed blood wroms if he's still young and small.

How about housing him with some friends? Do the fish do well in slightly brackish water (1.003-1.005)?

Brackish, no, strictly freskwater. Anything you put with him, will be killed sooner or later. Fahaka tankmates = food.

ROTTEN76 wrote:Brackish, no, strictly freskwater. Anything you put with him, will be killed sooner or later. Fahaka tankmates = food.

Well said... Cute fahaka!

If you want to keep him in a community tank(which I wouldn't do...), feeding him feeder fish would be less than ideal, aside from being unhealthy as this is not a piscivore...

I know but I just read somewhere that they do take feeder fishes. Currently I am housing the 3 cm fahaka in my 55 liter feeder tank.

They will eat ANYTHING - but feeders carry a lot of diseases puffers often have trouble with, and being slower moving fish, they would seldom ever have a chance to catch fish in the wild - only the lurking type puffers have much fish in their wild diet.

Please read pur article on feeding your puffer feeders, in our Library, before you consider this unhealthy food for your fish.

Chill-out, madame. I only feed feeders to my arrowhead but i am try to cut back on that too. Training it to eat silversides and market pawns, however with only mix success.

For the fahaka, I am feeding it ghost shrimps and baby ramhorns. Although it do not seem to care much about the ghost shrimp.

Alright, I'm chillin. It's cool in here!

I think the people here don't really like feeders from what I am reading.

We definately don't - for most puffers, they are poorly digested and unnatural food - mollusks are very lean, and feeders are fatty. For lurkers, while they are well digested and natural foods, the conditions store bought feeders are raised under make it more or less inevitable that you will give your puffer internal parasites and/or other diseases. The frozen silversides you mention are a great supplemental food for lurkers, and if you breed your own livebearers under good conditions, they are a safe feeder fish option as well.

Cute Puffer

3cm that's sooo small

That's strange he's already got his trade mark fahaka stripe markings!

BakeAT98.6°'s Fahaka was bigger than that and was a lot more spotty (aparently Fahaka's are spotty as a juvenile and get their stripes as they mature)

Hey BakeAT98.6° maybe you have got a Cross River