The Puffer Forum

I have 2 F8s. 1 smaller than the other. The one I recently bought keeps eating flake food and lots of it. The flakes are meant for the other fish, who get to eat it, but the F8 is not supposed to eat the flakes. Recently, he started eating them even faster. This is the bigger one. I taught him how to eat snails and now he sometimes crushes the entire snail shell in his mouth right away.

The smaller puffer also tries to get the snail, but cannot compete very well with the larger puffer. Smaller F8 does not eat flakes at all, only pellets. Both puffers eat snails and shrimp.

The smaller puffer has a perpetually inflated belly. I tried keeping them off snails for up to 3 days straight, but the smaller F8, which doesn't eat anything but the snails (that I see) and other live food like shrimp, has been inflated with a large belly for weeks. Why is this happening?

Can you tell us more about you tank and it's inhabitants? Have you done much reading on F8s? Here are two good pages for you to start off with

library/puffers-in-focus/fig8/
ug.php/v/PufferPedia/Brackish/T_Biocellatus/

I had GSP's that ate shrimp pellets like crazy. The pellets was almost like a drug to them...lol. I also had a stars and stripes puffer that ate the crap out of marine green algae sheets on a clip meant for my tangs many yrs ago. Even a small young Volitan Loinfish that loved to eat floating large flakes and pellets. So I don't put it pass certain species of fish to eat food that you would never think they would even try.

Algae is excellent for marine puffers That was a smart puffer you had!

Flutter wrote:Algae is excellent for marine puffers That was a smart puffer you had!

Yes, Yes it was a smart puffer..lol. He sure liked his greens

Nothing wrong with a puffer eating flakes, as long as he eats other foods too. I rarely feed any of my community fish flakes, so I'm sure your others will do a good cleanup of whatever you offer the puffers. What kinds of fish are we talking about?

There really should be no shocks in puffers eating flakes and/or pellets. They are bright and inquisitive fish. The fact that we urge routinely against flakes and pellets has nothing to do with their food value or lack thereof, but almost entirely concerns providing a properly textured food supply for puffers to control their constantly growing incisor plates. Prepared foods may offer more than adequate nutrition, but do little or nothing for controlling incisor plate growth, and in puffer tanks contribute heavily to tank pollution. Nutritional adequacy has little effect effect on suitability of a food for a sustainable puffer diet. Flakes and pellets may nourish, but for dental health and tank maintenance they are strongly negative influences. NIMFT, thanks anyway.

I do use flakes and pellets widely, routinely, and highly successfully for many of my fish. But only for those critters for which they are appropriate both nutritionally and by lifestyle.and successful tank operation outlooks. I do try very hard not to shoot myself or my fish in the foot - or perhaps the mouth - by using non-sustainable practices.

No one has ever said the marine puffers especially do not like or need green foods. Most puffers get some chance greens in their diet in the process of capturing their prey, but the true marines seem prone to select a higher percentage than their FW/BW relatives. Those willingly graze macroalgae and are likely to benefit from supplementing such if it is not available in their tank routinely.

HTH

On RTR's suggestion, i just purchased Sea Veggies for my ocellatus. Now, where's that veggie clip???

Someday, there will be veggie clips that are unobtrusive. That would be heaven!

Why do the manufacturers seem to feel that they must be gaudy?

My puffer is swimming up towards the algae sheet but no bites yet.

Some Cory, a glass catfish, and 5 mollies. My fear is that the puffers will fill up with the flakes thrown in for the other fish and when it comes time to feed the puffers snails (at least 1-2 times per week), they will already be unhealthy and fat.

Are these fish in brackish water? Glass cats & cories won't like any salt at all.

Pufferpunk wrote:Are these fish in brackish water? Glass cats & cories won't like any salt at all.

I heard that adding a table spoon of salt is good for fish in general. But no, the water is otherwise unsalted.

Some reading for you:
library/misc/thesaltoftheearth/
library/puffers-in-focus/fig8/

The so-called recommendation that 'some' salt is good for all fish is mythology. It is valueless and much more likely to be detrimental than helpful,

library/misc/thesaltoftheearth/