The Puffer Forum

Hi there..do you just drop your food into the tank or do you put it in a glass jar or anything special to feed? My valentini is new to me, on my second day now and I've feed him freeze dried brine to no avail it just floats at the top, also fed some frozen mysis shrimp and that just broke apart and floated off all over the tank. I'm going to pick up some local seafood today what are your suggestions? Should I freeze it, should I create a blend by putting what I purchase in a blender then freezing to feed?

Thanks so much

I think either of those would be fine.

There's a species profile in the PufferPedia and a feeding/diet article in the Library. Give those a look-see.

And welcome to the forum, by the way!

For a fish like that, remember he came from the wild & is used to eating foods from the water column that moves, not something dead that is floating on top of the water. That being said, definately check out all the feeding artivles in our Library.

well I offered him a clam a managed to crack open dropped down into the tank and he wanted nothing to do with it...until I offered it to him in my handy dandy tongs. He only ate a few pieces.

Well first of all, give him/her time to settle into its new environment. Lots of puffers need a little time before they get comfortable. (At least with my experience, GSPs are an exception: any of the ones I've had have been ready for a meal about two minutes after hitting the tank.)

Like PP says, check out the feeding article in the Library. Mine mostly gets mysis shrimp (thaw them before you put some in the tank, otherwise too much of it goes to waste) and bloodworms, with the occasional bit of oyster, clam, black mussel, or shrimp. And then of course there's there's algae and copepods she gets from the live rock in between feedings. She used to eat my red leg hermits and my emerald crabs, but I've stopped buying them because it's pretty much a given that they're going to be slowly picked to death. They also love feather duster worms if you can afford them.

I fed my valentini a well varied diet. His main meal was a cube of mysis. Half in the morning and half at night. Every other day i gave him half a mussel. In between main meals he received snacks of snails. I also fed him live blood worms. I had a small breeder tank with crabs i got from the ocean. Made sure they were all clean and healthy. However after a while he stopped eating these crabs. He would investigate but thats about all. He took an occasional nip at a small one once in a while though.

My valentini loves mysis shrimp. He will also eat the granulated fish food that I give to my clown fish.

Just an update, he took a few of the mysis not as much as I would have liked but what he really likes are the pellets I give my clowns..lol...that's an easy one. Tried to give him silverslides as well but only nipped at it. I think I will let him have what he wants with the pellets and every other day offer him the mysis.