The Puffer Forum

HI THERE. IM A PROUD "NEW" MOMMY TO MY SWEET ABEI PUFFER. HE'S A HAPPY, HEALTHY GUY, WHO LOVES USING HIS SHARP TEETH TO CRUNCH THROUGH RAW SHRIMP! I CALL HIM "ABRAHAM".

MY QUESTION MIGHT BE SILLY TO SOME, BUT IM WONDERING IF THERE IS ANYTHING WRONG WITH FEEDING FROZEN "UNTHAWED" RAW SHRIMP TO MY 5" ABEI PUFFER? SOMETIMES HE GRABS THE SHRIMP BEFORE IT THAWS IN HIS TANK.
BUT BECUZ OF HIS SHARP TEETH, I ACTUALLY THINK MAYBE ITS "GOOD" FOR HIM!????
AS HE IGNORES MUSSELS & CLAMS IVE DROPPED IN FOR HIM TO KNAW ON.

ALSO, I ONLY FEED HIM 1 SHRIMP A DAY... SHOULD I FEED MORE?

THANKS SO MUCH! LOOK FORWARD TO HEARING YOUR THOUGHTS.

You really shouldnt bank on the shrimp being crunchy enough to help trim his teeth. Plus yes you should defrost in vitamin water or tank water always. If its too frozen he could crack his teeth badly. You should feed snails the size of his eyes or just barely open raw clams( i soak em garlic juice now cuz mine just dont seem to care for clams like they used to).

if YOU ate a whole popsicle in one bite.... wouldnt you get a brain freeze??? im just saying... they arent smart enough to know to let it defrost... i dont think they get the concept of letting it thaw before eating it.... i defrost everything in a shot glass with a mix of tank water and vita chem before feeding. vita chem is only about 3x a week tho, sometimes 4... it depends

KILOFEY-I haven/t used the vita chem have you seen any differences since using it?

Feeding frozen non-thawed food can shock the puffer if he does eat it. It takes time to thaw even in the fish's belly and can drop his temperature down too far and kill him. You do need to thaw it first in a small amount of water, and not thaw it in the tank. Add some vitamin supplement also. Another thing with feeding frozen shellfish is to make sure it's not pre-cooked, it will say on the package. Puffers don't have little underwater stoves, grills, or campfires to cook their food so we should try to emulate that.

Just a note: Using all caps on the net is considered, YELLING.

Pufferpunk wrote:Just a note: Using all caps on the net is considered, YELLING.

i know. i was told that.

kilofey wrote:if YOU ate a whole popsicle in one bite.... wouldnt you get a brain freeze??? im just saying... they arent smart enough to know to let it defrost... i dont think they get the concept of letting it thaw before eating it.... i defrost everything in a shot glass with a mix of tank water and vita chem before feeding. vita chem is only about 3x a week tho, sometimes 4... it depends

Im not a total idiot: i understand they're "not smart enough" to let the shrimp thaw.
Thankyou for pointing that out
anyways, I was just wondering, as, a few times the shrimp havn't totally thawed & he's crunched through them no problem.
wanted to know if anyone's ever had any actual problems from it with their puffer was all.

My husband and I have a 4 year old 20" fire eel, who's healthy as a horse, and sometimes eats his shrimp while theyre still a bit frozen, not a problem at all!

Take care

Puffers are sensitive to cold things, including food. You should never feed your puffer unthawed food. One of the bad sides of it is that it's not good for their digestion.