The Puffer Forum

I know I have read about keeping your puffer on live food, frozen food, snails, worms you name it.
But I think I have a picky puffer. Dont get me wrong he loves pond sails or pest snails whatever you call them.
I feed him about 20 or 30 per week. LFS tosses them to me for free. But my concern comes in the mean time.
He only eats freeze dried bloodworms and freeze dried baby shrimp.
Is that ok? Is he getting enough nutrition? Thats my concern. I try and make sure this little guy lives like a king here at my office.
He is liked by so many I would hate to see anything happen to him because of my neglagence.
Any advice would be great thanks

No freeze dried is low in the nutrition side of things. Try some earthworms most puffers go nuts over them. A way a lot people use to get their puffers to eat new foods, is to not feed them for a day or two and then put in what ever the new food is, if he doesnt take it, take it out and try again the next day. They wont let them self starve they will figure out its food and eat.

You might want to consider getting a small 2-5g tank and breed your own snails. By just tossing in snails from your LFS you run the chance of throwing in disease.

Pick a couple of different frozen foods that are nutritious but inexpensive and buy a small amount of each.

Dont feed the puffer for a couple of days and then offer the new food. Chop up the food a little and squish it in the water so the puffer can get a good smell. If he wont eat it, remove it and offer again tomorrow. He will not starve himself and usually he will eventually try whatever you offer.

However, from experience I have found that not all puffers will eat all foods. If your puffer tastes the new food and doesn't return to it, you may have to try something else.

One way to make FD foods more nutritious is to soak them in vitamin water first. I use VitaChem. A little bit of water, some food, and a drop of the supplement in a shot glass is all it takes. You can soak your frozen foods too

LFS-sourced snails should be QT'd and fed well for several weeks prior to feeding them to your puffer. Directly feeding such to your puffer is dangerous. It is an invitation to disease and possibly death plus is of unknown nutritional value. Well-nourished and clean snails can be a perfectly adequate diet all alone, but supplementing that with other high-protein foods periodically (treats, not staples) is a plus.

For me, my F-8s and juvenile DSPs get diets at least 90% owner-bred and reared snails. I still have not heard of anyone else keeping either fish as long as mine have averaged.

Most wild puffers are mollusk eaters. Snails are mollusks, as are the bivalves (clams, scallops, etc.).

HTH