The Puffer Forum

So I am looking to give my Mbu some different food and I recently learned that Ocean Nutrition now markets frozen clams on the half shell. Has anyone tried these specific ones yet?

Also, everyone seems to say that raw shrimp is better than cooked shrimp. Can someone explain the pros to raw, other than the shell?

In addition to killing off nutrients, raw foods contain digestive enzymes, and when food is heated above 107° F, the enzymes are killed off. The body then has to produce these enzymes in excess, and this takes its toll and has been linked to disease.

I wouldn't buy the"pet food" clams, they are much cheaper in the seafood section of many grocery stores. Freeze them, and defrost them in vitamin fortified water.

Thanks for the info. The attraction to these clams is they are much smaller than what is available at my grocery store. I feel they would be much more manageable for my puffer.

Nah, pulled open, they scrape the meat off the shell. I have much smaller puffers and they do very well with them even though they are smaller than the clams/mussels/oysters.
I let them eat for a spell, then pull it out and save it in the fridge for next time. I do have some waste as I don't keep it in the fridge for too long, and they can't eat all of it before that freshness period ends, but it's still so much cheaper. The little mussels I saw prepared for fish were $18.99. I can get the same amount for about $2 at whole foods.

Frozen raw clams, oyster, and mussels on a half shell or whole shell opened without any salt. Puffer eating the meat on the shell will help with the teeth. I have a hard time finding frozen clams, oysters, and mussels raw here, so sometimes I only find them without the shell at a gorcery store. But it works for now.

I've been told you can buy an entire bag of mussels at Walmart for $4. They also have earthworms there FS.

The only mussels I've ever found at Walmart are cooked/frozen. I wish they weren't cooked, because they are cheap!

Srkoe wrote:The only mussels I've ever found at Walmart are cooked/frozen. I wish they weren't cooked, because they are cheap!

Yep, I also bought the same bag and they found out they where cooked. Every once in awhile thay will have what you need to feed your Mbu without being cooked. I get lucky sometimes.

What should the schedule be for mbus? How many days/week? How many times/day? What mixture of soft and hard food? It seems from my research to that the schedule of under 12 inch is daily, with 50/50 soft/hard, and over 12 inch every other day with 50/50 soft/hard. But there isn't much out there. Does this sound correct? Thank you.

do all walmarts not have a fresh seafood section? i dont think mine does

Thr schedule for giants is no different from any other puffer. That is that they get fed daily but only six days per week when/if tiny (T. mbu are rarely sen as fry IME). \Immature are fed alternate days. Adults may continue of that schedule if you do not overfeed or they can go to every 2-3 days depending on the amount given and consumed per meal.

Always remember that obese fish are not long-lived fish.

This is an old thread which was revived.

You'd think the raw prawns would tast better than cooked but when ever I feed my puffers raw they eat a bit and leave some. If I feed them cooked they eat the whole lot in one go?!

Cooking denatures (chemically changes) the protein structures and can make it very difficult to digest. Fish can't cook their food (that whole fire/heat under water thing..) and shouldn't be given cooked foods. Sometimes tiny amounts are OK but for a staple it's not good. Think about humans, we evolved to eat cooked food, imagine what would happen if you ate a belly full of raw beef...your body wouldn't be used to it and, even though it wouldn't kill you, you wouldn't feel too well for a few days. A few good examples of denaturing protein is cooking eggs & pickling meats. Egg whites (mainly consisting of the protein albumin) start off as clear and as heat is applied the protein structure changes making the "whites" opaque. Pickling meats has the same result, you expose the proteins to acids (vinegar) and the protein structure changes visibly (turns whitish).
As per Dadof4

My personal feelings on cooked food for fish are somewhat different from PP's but the basis is really the same: Cooking radically changes the nature of proteins and vitamins and even to formulation of some essential materials. Fish in the wild do not ever experience or even meet cooked food.

Freezing and freeze-drying are gentler processes biologically and biochemically. They are not perfect, but less changing than cooking.

Fresh and raw is the optimum nutritionally, but may expose the fish to certain parasites. Home freezing and thawing reduces that risk.

HTH

That comment I posted was copied from Dadof4. Sometimes, I actually have no opinion & I copy one.