The Puffer Forum

So I bought some muscles with the shell the yesterday night for my GSP. I broke one open and dropped a half in the tank. She nibbled at it once and then completely ignored it so I took out it. I just now put it in again and she is showing NO interest what so ever...I'm not sure what to do! Should I just keep repeating the process until she gets hungry enough to eat it? Any info would be helpful.

Pretty much You can always toss that one and fast her for a couple days and try again. I only ever now try new foods after a bit of fasting.

Flutter wrote:Pretty much You can always toss that one and fast her for a couple days and try again. I only ever now try new foods after a bit of fasting.

Okay that sounds like a good plan. Thanks!

Could try soaking it in garlic.

haha I tried the garlic soak and they ate the garlic chunks that clung to the food, but not the food. Silly nutters!

And if all that doesn't work, you can always try the earthworm routine. Most of my puffers LOVE earthworms, and if your puffer turns his/her nose up at that, then I would try with-holding food for a time and let him/her get really hungry.

Don't you offer other types of food like shrimps, krill, etc.? Or you're trying to include mussels in your puffer's diet?

My fahaka won't eat anything that doesn't 'move'. That being said, I put shrimps and mussels (when they don't fall off on me) on skewers or hold (the best I can ) with a skewer. If need be, kicking it around the tank with the skewer (pointy end in my hand so I don't injure my fish!) is enough to get Vicious excited. Once it stops moving, all interest is gone. I feel like I'm playing with my puff, but at the same time I think it makes the 'happy' light turn on as they feel like they get to chase their food down.

Wow Garlic? I would have never thought of that.

And I havent had her for that long. Her diet mainly included frozen bloodworm cubes, live earth worms, and pond snails. So shes not really used to muscles and such. I'm trying to get her into so itll wear down her beak more. It's hard to get her to notice the little snails long enough for her to eat them; and I figured she'd enjoy the muscles more anyways.

It just might be personal taste too. My turgidus absolutely hates mussels and won't touch them, if he does get excited and snaps one up, he immediately spits it back out and goes and pouts. Won't talk to me for days!

My burrfish adores them though. So I guess its a "personal taste choice". If he's nibbled at it, that may be the case, the hard part with introducing new foods is actually getting them to bite it and get the flavor. Usually once they do that they figure out its food, unless they don't like the flavor!

Try some thawed out frozen, raw, skin on shrimp.. most puffers do love shrimp.

My SAP hates mussels too! He loves shrimp and only eats snails if I smash up their shells. Just like Myaj said, that might be personal taste.

Well I guess maybe my puffer is a bloodworm gal...I broke down and few her bloodworms tonight. Maybe ill try the muscle again some other time :/ oh well I guess shes fine with that and snails and earthworms. Gosh....so picky! lol

I would still try her with some other foods every once in a while. I have puffers that absolutely love mussels, and others that turn their nose up at them, but like Myaj said, most puffers enjoy shrimp, so you might want to try pieces of jumbo shrimp (raw). And just a suggestion, but since your puffer isn't eating much in the way of variety, I would make sure that the bloodworm you are feeding has been soaked in vitamins, so your puffer is getting all the goodies she needs to be a healthy puffer.

pufferpuggirl wrote:I would still try her with some other foods every once in a while. I have puffers that absolutely love mussels, and others that turn their nose up at them, but like Myaj said, most puffers enjoy shrimp, so you might want to try pieces of jumbo shrimp (raw). And just a suggestion, but since your puffer isn't eating much in the way of variety, I would make sure that the bloodworm you are feeding has been soaked in vitamins, so your puffer is getting all the goodies she needs to be a healthy puffer.

Ok ill try the shrimp Hopefully she'll enjoy that! and where can i buy fishie vitamins?

If your LFS doesn't have any aquatic vitamins, try eBay, that's where I buy mine.