The Puffer Forum

I have three small (around 1 inch) spotted green puffer - Monster, Alien, and Predator in a 32 Gallon BW tank right now.
the tank is full of dead reef rocks, decor, bubble walls, etc (shown in picture). So hiding and places to explore shouldn't be a problem.

Alien and Predator is fine and always swim around and exploring.
Once they see me, they usually swim to the front of the tank begging for food
but Monster, the biggest of the three, is always swimming up and down at the sides, even when i feed them.
so i have to throw in extra food just to attract his attention (he'll eat when either alien or predator is eating near him, then he will grab the food from them and eat it) while the Alien and Predator are already both super full and tummies r sooo round.

is there any reason why monster is doing that?
i did get them at different times. I got Monster and Boo like 2 months ago, but Boo died when i went away for 2 weeks and asked my sister to take care of them then i went to my LPS to get Alien and Predator when i came back. But does that matter even if that are from two different batches of fishes? Could Monster be stressed before Alien and Predator came from a different batch?

All three of them are bright green with white belly. So i'm assuming they are healthy.
Just wondering if theres anything i could do to make them eat at the same time so i don't need to overfeed Alien and Predator just to get Monster to eat.

(PS. I usually feed them dried red shrimp, frozen krills and snails, occasionally blood worms. Is that ok? Monster is always too slow at getting the snails, so will it be a problem for his beak if he only eats the dried shrimps/krills? I tried live ghost shrimp, but i guess they are too small to eat the shrimps right now, so i got 10 little ghost shrimp as my great tank cleaning helper for now!)

any suggestion would be great!

Sometimes they just do that. Mine did that until I moved them into my big tank, then they stopped. 32G is pretty small for 3 puffers, even small ones, so I'd consider moving them into a bigger home if you want to keep them together and then they'll probably be fine. They look pretty happy, but if they're pacing, then you know they're not feeling alright.

I'm not sure, but I think that they need more space to play in. They definitely need more space to grow in. They'll need at least 90g total, and soon. They grow to about 6in each. Only one of your puffers can stay in that tank. There is a species profile in the PufferPedia and an article in the Library on GSPs. Both can be found under the Learn tab.

PS. I usually feed them dried red shrimp, frozen krills and snails, occasionally blood worms. Is that ok? Monster is always too slow at getting the snails, so will it be a problem for his beak if he only eats the dried shrimps/krills? I tried live ghost shrimp, but i guess they are too small to eat the shrimps right now, so i got 10 little ghost shrimp as my great tank cleaning helper for now!

any suggestion would be great!

Cut out the frozen krill ( can cause lock jaw in some puffers, it is ok as a treat but very seldom) and try adding something with shell on such as shell on shrimp, snails, or mussels. This is to ware there teeth down which is required. As LilGreenPuffer and lmsmith noted they really do need 30 gallons each. Goodluck.

Krill is fine, as long as it's not the staple of their diet. You must have a lot of fun moving all that stuff around to clean that substrate every week!

Thank you for all the reply.

I have a 120Gallon SW tank with just Corals and couple hermit crabs in it. They are just gonna be in the 32G till i slowly raise the salinity closer to the salt water. They came from a FW tank so i didn't wanna put them straight into the SW. I didn't want to shock them (I wonder what size is ok for a SGP to be in full marine?)

but for now, is there anything i can do to make them eat together? I don't want to overfeed Alien and Predator just to get Monster to eat.

for the diet, i heard clam and mussels are good for their beak. Is live ones better or should i just get the frozen ones? my grocery store sells both. I'm just wondering if i should worry about the live clams containing anything bad (ie bacterias, parasites) that would be harmful for the puffers? or is live one healthier for them?

p.s. Yea.. water changes every week is fun. I take out 50% water using the gravel vacuum and i tries to rearrange the decor so it would be like a "new environment" for them to explore.

Frozen is good, but make sure when buying they are raw. Take them out of the freezer a little bit before feeding and thaw in a cup of tank water. Always good to add some vitamin's to the thaw water. Great to hear you got another tank ready for them but until you do move them there might be some problems when it comes to feeding time because of the smaller living space.

It your supermarket sells live mussels and clams, why not buy a few and store them in your SW tank until you want to feed them. They'll survive quite happily for a few days, it usually takes a month or so for the heat to get to them. Bacteria is no different to what from what they are frozen in. My puffs love chewing at the last bit of meat in the shell, it keeps them interested for hours.

You could always add the one that isn't eating to the big tank, just acclimatize it over a few hours and it'll be fine. Fish are a lot more forgiving about changes in salinity than bacteria (that's why you only raise your SG 1.002 a week - the bacteria change with each step).