The Puffer Forum

I bought the GSP Dec.4, 09 I have pulled up the list of food that is on this site that is good for him. He was eating flakes whin I got him. This is what he won't eat....omega one shrimp pellets, wardley cichilid floating pellets, omega one tubiflex worms. He will nip at broken up krill. He will still eat some flake.
I put tailess market shrimp on a holder and he don't touch it. There in six ghost shrimp in the tank and have been for months. won't touch snails.
Now he loves frozen blood worms and fresh night cawler worms! He will pig on the crawlers.
I know he needs hard food to keep his beek in check. So what can I do? Have you had this happen to you with a GPS?

The worms are good food for him. You can normaly get free snails from the local fish store. They see them as a bother and will normally be glad to give them away. I would just try to make sure the fish thats in the tank look nice and healthy. If you have another tank to hold them in for a week or too that would be great giving you the opertunity to gut load them and even start breeding them yourself.

Bcummings8521 wrote:The worms are good food for him. You can normaly get free snails from the local fish store. They see them as a bother and will normally be glad to give them away. I would just try to make sure the fish thats in the tank look nice and healthy. If you have another tank to hold them in for a week or too that would be great giving you the opertunity to gut load them and even start breeding them yourself.

Like I stated, he won't eat snails. What fish are you talking about? He don't eat fish? Fish are bad for puffers to eat.

Yes, breed your own snails for him and cherry shrimp in a 10/20gal. Also try smashing the snail for him maybe he's a tad too small to eat the snail. Once he eats one he wont stop. Its their staple food for me. Any food you try soaking in Garlic Guard. Its a flavor enhancer and help with their immune system. My puffs absolutely love their clams/snails/BW/krill etc soaked in it. You could also used garlic juice squeeze from fresh cloves but for a few bucks the " garlic guard by seachem" its just easier and save you the mess. Most puffers don't eat flakes I would get him off of that asap so he's forced to eat the other foods the same way he was forced to eat flakes in the incompetent LFS.

My gsp chases a chopstick. i stick the food to the chopstick and hold it above water til he finds it then dip it in, the food floats off and because he's in attack mode he'll bite the snails. sometimes i have to crush the snails onto the chopstick

The trick is to keep trying they can refuse a certain type of food for a while without understanding that it is food. And "fish" was pertaining to the fish at the lfs that they get the snails out of (didnt think it was that confuseing.) NM just keep trying the snails and maybe even some small clams (just open the shell for him and freez it overnight to get rid of any bad stuff.)

Thanks everyone for all the great info. Now I understand what is going on better and have some new tools to work with. Thanks again.

Best suggestion I have.. don't feed him for 3 days and then offer him the new food. Puffers can easily go weeks without eating, but if you feed them every day they'll be more picky and only want their favorite stuff. So let him spend a day or two hungry, and he'll be much more willing to try new foods.

For snails, I've found you may need to crush one and get the puffer to try that first, before they can figure out what to do with them.