The Puffer Forum

Hey there,

My tiny baby topaz puffer loves his food, that much no mater what and how much he keeps eating, yesterday he eat about 2 tea spoons of live blood worm and 2 rams horn snales, ok its good he eats but is it right to let his belly blow up like his gonna burst lol?

No, only feed to a slightly rounded belly. Please don't kill him with kindness. Fat fish get fatty liver disease = shorter lifespan.

I think it would be very helpful if we could get pictures of the different puffer species to give us a bit of a guideline. I'd be happy to supply pictures of SAPs if someone else will judge them. Couldn't do that for a few weeks though.

LOL, a waistline contest?

Hehe, na, just to create a guideline. A slightly bulging stomach on a GSP is way different than on a SAP. I think I'm doing well with the SAPs though really I don't know if I'm feeding too much or too little (and I've seen this come up many times too). They're so different from the other species. I think it might be a handly little thread, pictures of the ideal after feeding tummy

That's the problem with puffers: they don't know when to stop. Or many of them don't know. They are greedy little fellas. In the wild, they don't know when they will get their next meal, so they need to take the opportunity of any food when it's presented. So we need to decide for them.

so if there is an over abundance of food, will they over indulge or level off?

They will overindulge. Some may even do so to the point of illness or even death. I believe there were some pics floating around of a puffer that actually ate so much it literally burst apart.

SAPS are HIGH energy and I think burn off more calories than many puffers, too.

bazil323 wrote:They will overindulge. Some may even do so to the point of illness or even death. I believe there were some pics floating around of a puffer that actually ate so much it literally burst apart.

Really? I thought it puffed up and did that...

There are varied body forms - the SAPs to me are tubular or boxcar - as are some marines. GSP and F-8s are blimps,or want to be. The auriglobus are almost fish-shaped. Palembangs tend to look as if they were hit by a car while wearing camo (submarine ?).

I find lurker puffers to often resemble a shoe.

These SAPS are a little on the picky side. They only want shrimp and blood worms, and I have run out of snails for the time being. I tried muscles and clams and they won't touch it. I tried blending up some garlic and thawing the food in that. I removed the food and they ate the bits of garlic that clung to it but still didn't touch their dinner

The list:
Muscles = no
Clams = no
Octopus = no
Squid = no
Shrimp = yes
Snails = yes
bloodworms = yes

Any other ideas?

Weird, here they were eating mussels and squid. They wouldn't touch the octopus though.

Try mysis shrimp and krill. They devoured both of those here.

I love the irrubescos, everything just goes in their mouth. Thought they aren't good with snails

ETA: Same with the betta. He flares at the food and then it's gone. Doesn't matter what it is.

Flutter wrote: Try mysis shrimp and krill. They devoured both of those here.

are these freeze dried products?