Picky Puffer and Shrimp
Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2010 5:37 pm
Well as some of you may, or may not know, my Congo puffer Orangey is a very picky puffer. For the first 2 weeks she rarely ate much and I feared she would die. She got a bit on the thin side, but I also noticed that my guppies were disappearing (at a very slow rate), so she evidently WAS eating something.
Then I started feeding Orangey earthworms and it appears now that the only foods she will eat are earthworms and the occasional guppy that happens to get too close to her mouth. My other Congo, Biscuit, who is much much smaller, will actively hunt the guppies when he's hungry, and he will also eat other foods too and is not very keen on earthworms, so they are almost opposites in their eating behaviours.
I also keep shrimp, decorative shrimp -- Bee shrimp and Cherry shrimp, and today I bought another type, I think they were Amano shrimp. And as the tank that house my shrimp is starting to get taken over by shrimp, I thought I would expand my shrimp empire by putting some into another tank. There's not alot of choices as most of my tanks house puffers that would happily eat those shrimp right up, and I don't want that.
So I thought I would put some shrimp into the tank with Orangey, it's a nice big tank with plants and most of the time Orangey is buried down in the sand, so I thought it would be a good place for the shrimp to live and breed. I have started out with just a few shrimp in there to see how it goes. So I put all 3 of the Amano that I just got today, and then I added 2 Cherry from my other tank. Then just a little while ago, as I was passing, I noticed that Orangey was up out of the sand, so I stopped to see what was going on. That's when I noticed a Cherry shrimp there in front of Orangey. Now normally Orangey would roll her eyes around and just ignore everything, but I was very surprised to see Orangey have a go at the shrimp! Luckily the shrimp jumped backward and is still living -- for now.
Here I thought my shrimp would be safe living with Orangey because Orangey isn't motivated by much and it's only when an earthworm falls right to his mouth that he even bothers to eat them .... so I thought for sure my shrimp were safe. Now I'm not so sure. Be my luck that shrimp be one of those things that Orangey livens up for and actively hunts, that would be typical. Of course, I'd be happy to have Orangey eating something other than earthworms -- just a shame that it's got to be my decorative shrimp!
Then I started feeding Orangey earthworms and it appears now that the only foods she will eat are earthworms and the occasional guppy that happens to get too close to her mouth. My other Congo, Biscuit, who is much much smaller, will actively hunt the guppies when he's hungry, and he will also eat other foods too and is not very keen on earthworms, so they are almost opposites in their eating behaviours.
I also keep shrimp, decorative shrimp -- Bee shrimp and Cherry shrimp, and today I bought another type, I think they were Amano shrimp. And as the tank that house my shrimp is starting to get taken over by shrimp, I thought I would expand my shrimp empire by putting some into another tank. There's not alot of choices as most of my tanks house puffers that would happily eat those shrimp right up, and I don't want that.
So I thought I would put some shrimp into the tank with Orangey, it's a nice big tank with plants and most of the time Orangey is buried down in the sand, so I thought it would be a good place for the shrimp to live and breed. I have started out with just a few shrimp in there to see how it goes. So I put all 3 of the Amano that I just got today, and then I added 2 Cherry from my other tank. Then just a little while ago, as I was passing, I noticed that Orangey was up out of the sand, so I stopped to see what was going on. That's when I noticed a Cherry shrimp there in front of Orangey. Now normally Orangey would roll her eyes around and just ignore everything, but I was very surprised to see Orangey have a go at the shrimp! Luckily the shrimp jumped backward and is still living -- for now.
Here I thought my shrimp would be safe living with Orangey because Orangey isn't motivated by much and it's only when an earthworm falls right to his mouth that he even bothers to eat them .... so I thought for sure my shrimp were safe. Now I'm not so sure. Be my luck that shrimp be one of those things that Orangey livens up for and actively hunts, that would be typical. Of course, I'd be happy to have Orangey eating something other than earthworms -- just a shame that it's got to be my decorative shrimp!
