The Puffer Forum

We picked this 'little' guy up tonight. He is about 2 inches without fin and has no name yet. He hung out in his new 120 gal home for an hour before I added a small amount of adult brine shrimp. He ate the few that hit the substrate near him. After another hour, I added a few blood worms, which he attacked and chased down every last one. He then spent the rest of the night exploring his new home.
Although I have researched the puffers on this site and read everything in the library, I would apreciate any helpful ideas regarding the upkeep of this little guy, especially regarding the types of food based on his size...now he is eating Brine shrimp and blood worms with snails already established in the tank. What else can I add at this size and what can I add to vary his diet as he begins to grow.

Any type of tips would be appreciated...we want him to have a long and happy life!

Thanks,

Steve

Sorry Steve, I've never owned a Fahaka, but I did want to say how cute he is. I think they are adorable when they are small (all puffers are).

Good luck with your new baby!

Ghost shrimp. I don't know if you can feed them clams or mussels but thats what you can feed SW puffers.

Read the feeding article in the Puffer Library, it will give you great ideas for a diet for him. Mussels are usually favorite, live crabs, crayfish, shrimp (raw with shell on). He's a tiny guy right now so I'd scrape the meat from the shell of a mussel and freeze it in pieces, leave a little meat on the shell too so he has something to scrape his teeth on. Ghost shrimp are fun to feed because he'll have to hunt them down.

Before you feed anything make sure you either freeze it for a while if it's dead, or for live food quarantine it and gut load it before feeding (give a little extra nutrition).

Thanks for the replys...we'll play with his food selection a bit. I was just happy to see him eat the first night.

Later,

Steve

1bigfish wrote:We picked this 'little' guy up tonight. He is about 2 inches without fin and has no name yet. He hung out in his new 120 gal home for an hour before I added a small amount of adult brine shrimp. He ate the few that hit the substrate near him. After another hour, I added a few blood worms, which he attacked and chased down every last one. He then spent the rest of the night exploring his new home.

Fahaka_2.jpg

Fahaka_1.jpg

Although I have researched the puffers on this site and read everything in the library, I would apreciate any helpful ideas regarding the upkeep of this little guy, especially regarding the types of food based on his size...now he is eating Brine shrimp and blood worms with snails already established in the tank. What else can I add at this size and what can I add to vary his diet as he begins to grow.

Any type of tips would be appreciated...we want him to have a long and happy life!

Thanks,

Steve

Hey mate be careful only feeding him small prey like blood worms and Frozen Krill etc.. Because if he gets used to just those foods he will never eat larger food that gets his jaws really moving!! Frozen Krill is termed (Fish Crack) for e.g if porcupine puffers are only fed krill as they grow older they can develop LockJaw because they never fed on larger food. Also all those live foods from Pet Shops are riddled with Internal parasites / Worms and eggs etc all of which can lead to illness. From my experience Fahakas are very hardy fish but no need to test that ! To ensure your puffer will grow to be Big and Strong feed it quality food, Human Safe Shellfish like Prawns and Mussels from your local supermarket not your fish shop, Mussels from your local supermarket are fresh and full of nutrients minus all the Bugs but full of fat / protein that he needs to bulk up! Also Cockles in the Shell are good to help keep Fahakas teeth in check. Live Shrimps are good now again but not all the time! I used to give my fahaka bloodworms and krill he never ate one of them he starved til I figured out that he wants real meat I gave him that first mussel and he loved. AS your puffer gets bigger youll see their preference towards whole prawns / mussels rather than skimpy worms.

I started out with a Fahaka same size as yours and in 6 months he grew trust me
8" Long:


Good Luck

Thanks for the info. I didn't mention that I had also stocked the tank with snails about 3/4 to 1 inch wide. This morning, he didn't really go for the worms and tore into one of the snails...very cool to watch! I will take your advice on the smaller food and try some of the meatier choices you mention. I've read about the other food choices, but thought he might be too small...but after seeing him attack the snail, he is obviously looking for meat!

Thanks for the advice...

Steve

You will want to setup a seperate tank just for the snails as the established snails in the Fahaka tank will not be around for very long

I agree, he will easily empty the snails out of this tank, but I have an abundance of snails in another tank and will be setting up a spare tank as a snailed 'breeder'. I found the RTR article last night...sounds fun.

We decided to name him 'Rambo' and he is currently enjoying a small treat of crab meat stuck in the crabs elbow...

Very cool that you already have him in such a big tank for his juvie size!

What a gorgeous fahaka puffer. I'm sure you were super excited to get him.

Thank you...we were very happy to bring him home and give him his tank.

Rambo is now very comfortable coming out to see us and we enjoy watching him explore and hunt in his tank. There are a few smaller fish for him to chase and eat, and we put live adult brine shrimp in to give him something to blow out of the substrate as he explores, but he realy loves the snails and chunks of crab meat (in the shell) that we feed him. We especially love watching him and the dog eye each other...who wants to eat who...cracks us up!

Steve

Cool puffer. One day....one day! lol