The Puffer Forum

my puffers seem to have no interest in food at all? tried flakes, pellets, plankton, bits of prawn... they seem very happy and active, bright, flaring their tails and playing in the powerhead flow... and are quite fat. could it be there is still enough benthic fauna and flora in my tank to keep them well fed ? there is quite a bit of liverock, and its literally encrusted with all kinds of stuff... they pick at it all day long but its hard to see if they are actually eating it or just scraoing their teeth on it?

what kind of puff?they seeem to go in finiky stages
couldnt get my gsp to eat a snail got some advice smoooshed it put it in krill he chowed it,bit deceptive but

papuan and valentini

We really need more info. I'm moving this to the Hospital forum, so you can answer ALL the Qs in red.

I have seen some of these puffers on the internet being feed sea weed...or those sheets of green that you use for sushi??? IDK

But, it is odd that both won't eat..

going to make me bust out the old test kits eh

papuan tank ... 130L with a large mantis shrimp and a 2" jewel damsel

salinity -1.0256
temp -26C
NH4 -0
NO2 -0
NO3 -10
pH -7.9

i do about a 20% water change weekly. i have been adding some seachem additives to keep the alk up, and trace elements, calcium, iodide

valentini tank ... 80L with a small mantis

salinity -1.0265
temp -26C
NH4 -0
NO2 -0
NO3 -5
pH -8.1

do about 20% fortnightly on this tank, as it has had just the mantis in it until a few days ago. will onviously be stepping this up as a messy puffer has moved in...


i have had the chance to watch them today, and saw the papuan totally DEMOLISH a large bristle worm, and the valentini has been chewing on bits of mantis molt... the pH is a bit low i guess? but cant see anything else obvious with the water chemistry... they are eating stuff, just not the stuff that im feeding them !!

and the papuan tank has been running six months now, the valentini tank 2-3 months. cycled with liverock.

Do you have corals in those tanks? How long have you had the puffers? What have they previously been eating? How often?

papuan tank has morphs, zoas (dying from zoa pox), and some random LPS and SPS corals that were hitchhikers.

valentini tank has some zoas i moved there to try and save from the pox, and some kind of leather coral i think that was another hitchhiker.

had the puffers for a week now and they havent really eaten anything ive given them at all, just a nibble on some plankton, once each. i guess they decided they didnt like it?

i cant really say what they ate before i bought them? tho i assume they would hae eaten something or other!

Try live blackworms, soaked in Selcon & VitaChem.

couldnt find blackworms so i went to the supermarket. they went crazy for bits of fresh mussel. also bought an octopus to try that too! i guess they just dont like prawns or plankton? lol

Yippee!!!

Yes, i was going to say shellfish until i read the end where you already did... great job