The Puffer Forum

Well my Fahaka (bought afew days ago) eating better each day and thats good. Fed really small what im assuming mystery snails that I got free from a lfs. I told them that I needed pest snails and thats what they got out of a tank, not Ramshorn or pond snails. Also feeding frozen bloodworms, frozen krill, going to add live red wigglers if near by Wal-Mart still carry them like they do in the warmer season, and live crayfish when baitshops start to open back up in the spring around here. Anything else other then live foods?

Go to your local grocery store and in the frozen food section you will find what is called Seafood Melody. It is a mixture of raw frozen seafood which most puffer's love. I always like to soak in Vitamins before feeding but find it much cheaper going this route that LFS prepared foods.

Filbert's general diet is usually people shrimp soaked in Vita-Chem or earthworms. He gets a live cray every 2-3 weeks. He also gets scallops, mussels, clams & oysters & a crab leg if it's on sale. He also steals the smaller fish's foods, F-d plankton & live blackworms. He has ruined about 10 worm feeders, biting into them.

Ok so you all dont feed your fahakas alot of hardshelled live foods all the time? I know I can't because only go in the city where all the fishshops are afew times a month. My son has a 5 gal tank in his room that I could start breeding snails but all I can find at any of the lfs's are mystery snail and thought about afew of them to breed for now until I come across some ramshorn's. I also noticed that some brands of frozen fish foods have frozen clams and scallops on a half shell now but have not hit the petshops yet.

A lot of shrimp have hard shells though. I know that the shrimp we have for the fish is shelled.

I feed shell on shrimp when I can. The last bag I bought was unshelled. Collected a ton of shrimp tails from the shrimp cocktail my family ate for the Holiday. Everyone knows the tails go into a cup for the puffers. They're cooked but it's only once a year. I can't remember the last time any of my puffers ate snails, although they do breed in my discus tank.

i feed mine mussels and cockles, both on shell
he also gets prawn, unshelled, and ramshorn snails
he like earthworms, woodlouse and shrimp

i tried him with oyster once, gave him constipation and made a mess of my water
going to see if i can get clams, scallops or a small crab leg for him now hes a bit bigger!

I feed shrimp with shell unboiled but for human consumption. Crabs claws wich we knock with a hammer. muscle in the shell. squidrings raw. from most of these foods i found out my Clowns love it too

Which remind me of a question for other fahaka owners, doe your fahaka also eats the shell of a muscle?
And is the knock we give the crabs/claws really needed or should a fahaka of 20 cm should be able to bite trough it themselfs?

My Fahaka is only 2 to 3 inches right now.. I have a snail farm with a bunch of ramshorns and bladder snails breeding right now, for the moment he's getting a snail every day, if I miss a day I'll give him 2 small ones the next day. I got him to eat a few of the Hikari Cichlid Bio-Gold + that I feed my piranhas but he for sure doesn't seem to be to found of them. I'm getting a marbled crayfish for free to start breeding some time soon I hope and I do plan on picking up a bag of raw shell on prawns or shrimps if I can find some.

lesleyanndunn wrote:i feed mine mussels and cockles, both on shell
he also gets prawn, unshelled, and ramshorn snails
he like earthworms, woodlouse and shrimp

i tried him with oyster once, gave him constipation and made a mess of my water
going to see if i can get clams, scallops or a small crab leg for him now hes a bit bigger!

Where do you buy cockle in shell? Really wanting to try that too.

HGI wrote:My Fahaka is only 2 to 3 inches right now.. I have a snail farm with a bunch of ramshorns and bladder snails breeding right now, for the moment he's getting a snail every day, if I miss a day I'll give him 2 small ones the next day. I got him to eat a few of the Hikari Cichlid Bio-Gold + that I feed my piranhas but he for sure doesn't seem to be to found of them. I'm getting a marbled crayfish for free to start breeding some time soon I hope and I do plan on picking up a bag of raw shell on prawns or shrimps if I can find some.

HGI, I tryed feeding him NLS Thara+A 3mm pellets and he chewed one but did not like it either. Eating more today on frozen bloodworms and krill. Sucked it down so that was a big plus. I will try to start breeding snails as soon as I feed some.

i can buy a bag of cockles in shell from my lfs
but i can get them now from the local fish market.
they are ideal for smaller fahakas.
then you can progress onto mussels in shell

I've never seen cockle sin the US. Bought a mesh bag of mussels the other day, from Jewel.

I found some half shelled frozen fish food. Don't know if it would do for Fahaka's or they are just for marine or brackish species though.

http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/p ... 1984&r=882


http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/p ... 2000&r=882

I found, at my local fish market, rock shrimp. They are just like normal shrimp but their shells are a lot harder. Bloat loves em and they definitely help his teeth