The Puffer Forum

I was wondering can I go out to the seafood isle and get some live salt water snails and clams and give it a quick wash and feed my fahaka puffer? I want something live to bring up their predatory instincts. So far, he's not too attracted to earthworms much.

I'll try to find fresh water snails, but I can't find many people that sell them and I don't exactly have a spare tank to raise snails.

Sure, that should be fine. People food doesn't need to be quarantined, so no worries there.

You can get snails from wilmasthecause.org.

LilGreenPuffer wrote:Sure, that should be fine. People food doesn't need to be quarantined, so no worries there.

You can get snails from wilmasthecause.org.

Um, sure they do. We freeze clams, mussels and shrimp we get from the supermarket so they don't pass on parasites on to our puffers and we cook them prior to us eating them. I put all food in quarantine one way or another.

Meh, some folks will disagree there.

We have always recommemnded freezing for at least 48 hours before defrosting & feeding out.

Any fresh foods need to be quarantined whether they are marketed for human of fish consumption. Just because it is marketed at human consumption doesn't automatically make it immune from being a parasitic host, even humans are not 100% immune from picking something up from eating fresh non frozen, or from frozen crustaceans for that matter. Not to quarantine them is a foolish and very unnecessary risk to take when quarantining is a simple thing.

so for anewbie like me thats planning on homing a puffer what would be the best method of quarenteening food for it ?

i was told to buy the frozen cockels (in shells) shrimp squid ect from the supermarket, thor out in warm water before feeding ?

Rgds Lee.

That will work nicely but make sure they are not precooked in any way before they are frozen, you lose nutritional value if they are. Easy way to avoid this is to buy shrimp, mussels, etc. fresh from the seafood counter at the supermarket or local fish market. I cut mine in to serving size pieces and then freeze them for about 3-4 weeks. I scrape the meat out of the shell of the mussels but leave a little on the shell for them to scrape their teeth on and divide the meat in to pieces and freeze.

I have had a fahaka for 6 months now he is 7.5'' long and eats like a pig, At first I tried feeding him frozen Blood worms and Krill but he didnt much carre for that. Went back to LFS they said they fed his as.s Mussels. So i got some of them and ever since all he has eaten his Mussels and Prawns + Live River Shrimp / Guppies and Danios etc. That is the best food for them Mussels they grow fast! What im also doing now for both my Porcupine and Fahaka is dipping their food in Vitamins to help there immune system grow. Since your fahaka is still small I would say cut up the Mussels into slices and feed him like that then later start giving him Prawns (Harder to chew). Also with small puffers and mussels is they rip the food up and only consume like 30% of it leaving a mess that you have to clean up everytime *SIGHS*, Feeding it to him in slices will minimize mess in the Tank!!!
Also I would suggest giving him Cockles in the Shell, as he needs some shell to crack open and keep his teeth wore down!
open the cockle shell at first and let him see what is inside then he will start eating them, then after that everytime you add a cockle leave the shell a bit more closed . This will teach him to crack open the cockle when you give him fully closed ones in the future. Unfortunately I never weened him on cockles at the start so he never got used to them and Now even if put an open cockle in his face he wont eat it or any FW snails I put in the tank. So the only way I can keep his teeth grinded is by feeding his Prawns with the Shell on !! not sure if that will help his teeth though??? Right now his teeth length is fine and only visible when he presses his lips against the Glass LOL

O yeh and another thing Puffers are not entirely Carnivore they do in the wild eat other things like plants or Certain type of soft corals (SW Puffers Only!).
Feeding FW Puffers just protein rich foods like mussels etc could lead to instances of internal parasite infection blah blah blah . You should once a week feed your Puffer a Pea or two / and or 1 or 2 pieces of sweetcorn. I was surprised but they actually love it! both Soft Peas and Sweetcorn have a shell on them so remove the Flesh from the pea shell etc and pop in the tank. Besides having vital vitamins that seafood dont have in it, a Pea will help flush out any shi.t in his digestive system.

GOOD LUCK

Guppies and danios aren't good foods for puffers.

It's not the protein in seafoods that lead to internal parasites - it's not quarantining. You don't need to feed veggies every week, either. Most don't like it, and it's not necessary, especially if you use well-fed live foods.

It is true that sharp-nosed tobies do eat some algae & should be fed nori or something similar, on occasion.

Sorry, should have clarified that, some puffers need veggie matter. But *most* puffers don't need it to flush out their systems, unless they get constipated.