The Puffer Forum

I've got 3 DP's in 5 gallon (I plan to move them into a 10 gallon in August ) and I've only had them since last Friday. I got 1 male and 2 female and are 1/2 - 3/4 of an inch long. I fed them 21 snails yesterday, but they only got to pick off a couple nibbles off of each snail. They look pretty skinny. I got dried krill and they don't eat it. I am planning on getting freeze-dried bloodworms. Would they work? Or would I have to get frozen/ live? I'm so worried!

Help. Thanks.

This is before my dwarf puffers, so you won't be able to see them.

Lil' Swimz$ wrote:I've got 3 DP's in 5 gallon (I plan to move them into a 10 gallon in August ) and I've only had them since last Friday. I got 1 male and 2 female and are 1/2 - 3/4 of an inch long. I fed them 21 snails yesterday, but they only got to pick off a couple nibbles off of each snail. They look pretty skinny. I got dried krill and they don't eat it. I am planning on getting freeze-dried bloodworms. Would they work? Or would I have to get frozen/ live? I'm so worried!

Help. Thanks.

Hi there. So you've had them just over a week or since friday there (19th June)? I would worm them if I were you. My dp's were very thin when I first got them and one in particular didn't eat much until after worming. The sooner you get them into a bigger tank the better too. I started off with a 9 us gallon tank for my two but I thought it was too small and they're now in a 29 us gallon, so they have more room to explore as dp's can be quite aggressive and need space as well as pleny places to hide. Dp's don't go much for dried food although there may be the odd few that may eat it. I feed mine frozen bloodworms and they love them. They only get snails once in a blue moon as Dj gets territorial over them. I would suggest fresh or frozen bloodworms.

Here is my two when I first got them in January:





this is them a few weeks ago:



I hope this helps.

I would definitely suggest frozen bloodworm, or if you can, live bloodworms (my puffers love the live ones). In my experience DP's love bloodworm above all else, at least all of mine are that way. They won't eat anything else, and I do put other things in the tank just in case. Most puffers enjoy frozen bloodworm.

I have only had my DP's for a few weeks now, but they won't eat anything but live balckworms. I tried to give them frozen bloodworms several times, but they would just swim up to them, look at them for a second, and swim away. They devoured the live blackworms the first time I put them in the tank (I think this is what the LFS was feeding them). So I would recommend trying the balckworms if you can find them in your area. Mine also LOVE snails, which I try to give them at least once a week.

Well the important thing is that your puffers ARE eating, and that's good. I've not tried blackworms, but not sure they have them where I get my bloodworm from, I will have to enquire .... but I think live vs frozen is probably the key. Obviously we all prefer live (fresh) food to frozen food -- at least most of us do I think.

It's just that I really don't like driving 45 minutes a week or so for live bloodworms. I bought a big pack of frozen and he said that it would last a year. So that's why I got them. They love them though!

I can understand your side Lil Swimz as I am not a driver and have to bus it for about an hour each way, I am lucky that mine love bloodworm, fresh or frozen, they mainly have frozen and get live every 3-4 weeks or so to treat them. Have also started a snail breeding small tank to help give them varied diet, etc. Just try to vary as much as you can