The Puffer Forum

Okay, I went out today and bought some live crickets for my mudskippers .... and since I have more than I know what to do with, I'm wondering if puffers can and will eat crickets? I don't want to give them a cricket if it's something that's going to cause them problems of any sort. I don't think it's something they would encounter in natural surroundings, is it? I suppose a cricket could fall into the water, but that's even if crickets are in places like India, Sumatra and Malaysia. So does anyone know if it's okay to feed crickets or is that like a silly thing to ask?

I believe that PufferPunk stated that mealworms had too much of a thick outer covering for puffers to eat them, is that correct? The woman at the pet shop was trying to get me interested in them, but I am not certain the mudskippers would be eat them, and I was fairly certain I'd read that they weren't any good for puffers -- so I didn't buy them, just the crickets. There's just not much variety of foods to give my puffers, here in my area of England. So I'm just trying to find out just what I can use, other than the usual stuff (shrimp, crabs, mussels, bloodworm, etc.).

Crickets are perfect Especially if you feed them some nice healthy veggies first, like spinach or Pufferpunk likes to feed her's oranges for the Vit C. That way the puffers eat both cricket and good stuff that the cricket just ate

Mealworms are tough and fatty.. yeah, avoid those.

Excellent, glad to hear my crickets will benefit my puffers as well as the mudskippers!

How long should the crickets be feeding on healthy foods before I feed them to the puffers? And should I attempt to feed these to the lurker puffers, or is that a waste of time? And if the cricket dies before it's eaten, should I take it out, or will a puffer eat a dead cricket?

Thanks Myaj

I would feed it the veggies just before you feed the puffer, for the maxium benefit.. I would think?

My lurkers liked them too.. just have to make sure you get their attention or use tongs and put the cricket down in front of them if they don't want to swim up to the top and attack. Once they see those little legs kicking, they can't resist.

I would remove any dead ones.. but more than likely there won't be any left.

Thank you, I look forward to feeding my puffers these crickets tomorrow (already fed them tonight). It's funny, I'm not frightened by spiders, snakes, rats or mice .... but something about bugs that scare me. Doesn't make sense, but there you go. So naturally I wasn't keen on having a boxful of crickets in the house (with thoughts in the back of my mind about them escaping!).

At least they won't go to waste because I was concerned that my mudskippers won't be able to eat them fast enough and I'd be wasting my money (nothing here is cheap). Good to know they have a dual usage.

Well how disappointing! The only puffer that I actually seen eating the cricket was the stowaway male irrubesco that's in the MBU tank. BeeBoo, my MBU, took a bite at it, and that's it, it sank and then my irrubesco got it and finished it off, legs and all. The rest of the puffers either didn't seem to care about the cricket being in the water, or didn't seem to see it, even though I kept pushing it towards them. I didn't try any of my lurker puffers because I thought if the other puffers, which are normally very keen to bite at anything entering the water, didn't bother, then I didn't think the lurkers would either.

So it's looking like the only real eater of the crickets is my big mudskipper. I put one cricket in with my dwarf mudskippers, but the cricket was fairly large compared with their small bodies, so I guess I will take it out tomorrow, if it doesn't get eaten, or maybe die and then get eaten.

I was hoping for more of a response to the crickets .... but that's how it goes.

I was going to try some small crickets with the GSPs when they are a little bigger, but not sure I could feed them something that has a little face!!!!!

Ah you won't see the face if your puffers eat the crickets! I'm just disappointed that mine don't seem to care about them!

i wouldn't give up just yet........
crickets are a BIG favorite here
it may take several attempts until the puffers are hungry enough, or until they recognize them as food
they can also be chopped up (should you feel so inclined) and fed to many other fish

Hey eieio, I love those "fish rocks" !

schismy007 wrote:Hey eieio, I love those "fish rocks" !

thanks schismy007
i took this picture last January near Death Valley National Park
here's a very interesting link about it's history: http://www.high-desert-memories.com/fishrocks.html

I'm really surprised, as ALL my fish love them.

Well I've not given up . I think I may need a different approach because earlier today I looked down to see a live cricket happily bouncing along in the kitchen (we think it crawled out of one of the tanks) and my instinct was to step on it, so I did, killing it. I then took it and put it in my Red-Line puffer's tank and the male came up to it immediately and started eating it, and then the female did (and she's usually very shy about eating food when someone's around). So I'm thinking that maybe the thing to do is to kill the cricket first. I will give that a try and see how it works out, and actually I like that idea better because at least I know that it won't be climbing out of the tank and wreaking havoc all over the house!

So there may be hope yet, and I really hope they can adjust to eating crickets because I can't see having that many crickets in the house just for my mudskipper.

schismy007 wrote:Well I've not given up . I think I may need a different approach because earlier today I looked down to see a live cricket happily bouncing along in the kitchen (we think it crawled out of one of the tanks) and my instinct was to step on it, so I did, killing it. I then took it and put it in my Red-Line puffer's tank and the male came up to it immediately and started eating it, and then the female did (and she's usually very shy about eating food when someone's around). So I'm thinking that maybe the thing to do is to kill the cricket first. I will give that a try and see how it works out, and actually I like that idea better because at least I know that it won't be climbing out of the tank and wreaking havoc all over the house!

So there may be hope yet, and I really hope they can adjust to eating crickets because I can't see having that many crickets in the house just for my mudskipper.

"wreaking havoc"

Is comparing basketball to cricket like comparing a McDonalds happy meal to a five course banquet? Trying to keep it simple for you guys. One is quick and easy but not very satisfying and the other takes time to savour and is thoroughly satisfying. Basket ball is quick and easy and cricket takes time to savour and is thoroughly satisfying.
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