The Puffer Forum

Hello,
I have acquired a stars and stripes puffer and was wondering what foods are recommended.
I've read that snails are good and that frozen raw shrimp is good. Now here's the question, is any canned
food suitable? For example I was in the supermarket the other day and saw a can of oysters, the ingredients listed says:
oysters, water, and salt. Wouldn't that be ok then? What's some good stuff to get for them to wear their teeth down?

My tank is the RSM 250, the other tenants in there are 2 ocellaris clowns, BTA , watchman goby, neon dotty back and
a somewhat short-handed clean up crew after Cartman ( that's the puffer) arrived.

Thanks for your help.

Welcome to the forum!

The added salt in the oysters wouldn't be good for them. Also, if they're cooked, that would be bad.

Here's some articles on feeding puffers:
library/category/feeding/

And a S&S profile:
ug.php/v/PufferPedia/Marine/A_Hispidus/

Wow great info, thank you!

Here's a couple pictures I took of him, he's so cool.

He sure likes his cave!

I've only heard negative things about canned meat. Phosphates is a preservative they use and other things too. I have a S&S too and am constantly looking for something new to feed. Right now i have raw mussels, cooked clams, raw shrimp, and cooked crab. Nothing i bought from my LFS would he eat. Not even krill. He only eats from the seafood department from the market. My recent discovery was the crab. They can suck the meat right out of the crab leg like a spaghetti noodle. Make sure with all these shelled food that you let him work to open them himself so he can keep his teeth nice and not overgrown. I like to see how your coral is doing after a while because hard coral are in their diet. Is that a LPS candycane? That might be a snack...

Try to feed raw whenever possible.

Why is cooked bad? I understand it breaks down some of the proteins. I admit i only use cooked clams because i am cheap and get them free. A butcher told me raw crab isn't available just like raw lobster isn't. He said only live or steamed is approved due to spoiling. Most stores are equipped with lobster tanks but not crab. Was i told wrong on this?

Gordon food service carrys raw shrimp, clams, lobster, crab etc. All raw and cheap. But it comes in bulk. The butcher is full of ..... I am a chef I used to always order raw everything and keep it frozen till flash steamed or boiled to serve. I wouldn't even waste my money on longer thou. It too exspensive for fish food

SammyDee wrote:Gordon food service carrys raw shrimp, clams, lobster, crab etc. All raw and cheap. But it comes in bulk. The butcher is full of ..... I am a chef I used to always order raw everything and keep it frozen till flash steamed or boiled to serve. I wouldn't even waste my money on lobster thou. It too exspensive for fish food. Cooked shellfish has hardly any nutrtional value same as any other cooked foods like red meat and veggies.

I am in the food industry too. I called Gordons and Dixon seafood today. They both told me their is a ban on raw lobster and crab. It spoils in about a day and also the raw meat is like a raw egg white. It needs to be steamed to be solid. If a crab leg is pink, it's been steamed even know they call it "fresh". Your choices are either live or steamed. Can't get it dead and raw. Anyways, their is talk about banning raw oysters and mussels too. I also bought some raw oysters, scallops, squid, and clams.

From Dadof4: "Actually cooking denatures (chemically changes) the protein structures and can make it very difficult to digest. Fish can't cook their food (that whole fire/heat under water thing..) and shouldn't be given cooked foods. Sometimes tiny amounts are OK but for a staple it's not good. Think about humans, we evolved to eat cooked food, imagine what would happen if you ate a belly full of raw beef...your body wouldn't be used to it and, even though it wouldn't kill you, you wouldn't feel too well for a few days. A few good examples of denaturing protein is cooking eggs ans pickling meats. Egg whites (mainly consisting of the protein albumin) start off as clear and as heat is applied the protein structure changes making the "whites" opaque. Pickling meats has the same result, you expose the proteins to acids (vinegar) and the protein structure changes visibly (turns whitish)."

Sry about my edits. Got logged out and my text disappeared.

Maybe i could have them knock one in the head to kill it but i think boiling or steaming is how they kill them anyway. I wouldn't know. I don't eat seafood nor do i cook it often.

I'm not sure if you have any TNT markets in the US but they carry a lot of raw seafood.
I would assume that there isn't or someone would have mentioned it!

Nice pics by the way!!

Well so far my puffer likes freeze dried krill and frozen raw shrimp. I soaked the shrimp in some tank water and tied it on some fishing line and let the current slap it around a bit so it looked alive and he couldn't resist. Everything else in the tank got fed at the same time because when the puffer tears into it, pieces are flying! I'm going to try some ramshorn snails this weekend and see how he likes those.

What's the max specific gravity that the Stars and stripes puffer should be kept in? I drip acclimated him for 3 hours when I got him. My SG is 1.025 (Refractometer). He seems happy.

Maybe try a gourmet market like niño salvaggios or whole foods or just a fancy gourmet fish market. We used to order raw oysters, mussels, clams, crab and lobster. You may be right on the ban thou. It's been a year since ordering anything like that. Do you have to feed crab and lobster. Why not save money n just buy the other raw shell fish you can get. Even meijer by me sells live lobster but they're huge. Prolly too big for a puffer. I kno for a fact Vince and joes gourmet market gets all the stuff and its all packed on ice. Don't kno if you have any of those stores by ya but good luck. Idk anything about what sg they prefer I've never had any puffs beside green spotted puffer so idk. Someone will till ya here thou. If he seems happy then I'd leave it. I do kno my lfs keeps all marine fish at or between 1.020 to 1.023 tops. Even there corals too. I thought it be higher for corals but theirs seem well.