The Puffer Forum

Alright, so I'm a newbie in the puffer world.

I recently got a puffer a little over a month ago. It is a common puffer (AKA Avocado).
The lady at the store told me that he would only eat as much as he needed. That he also ate meal worms and menows. I then bought 5 menows and a dozen of meal worms and put the menows in with the puffer in the tank... Well, my 2 inch puffer then proceeded to eat all 5 menows in less than 5 minutes and was now looking like a blimp without puffing up.

Now I ask... what do you feed your puffers and how often...??

I mostly feed my puffer meals worms and snails... the occasional menow and ghost shrimp...

Hi! welcome to TPF!

Menows are not the best choice of foods for puffers, because in the wild, puffers are moluscivores, not piscivores( fish eating) so all the excess fish oil can clog their arteries.

As for how much to feed, IME its best to feed until there is a decent size bulge, but not a "beer bellied" state.

There are lots of different choices on what to feed your puffer, Frozen foods work really well( such as krill, clam, and brine shrimp), as well as frozen shell-on shrimp and crab legs from your grocery store. Snails are also a must for many puffers, because they need to crush through shells to keep there 4 incisors from overgrowing.

When feeding ghost shrimp, keep in mind that they are mostly made of water, and not of much nutritional value, so I like to gut-load( feed them somthing before you feed them to something, such as algae wafers.( its a great way to sneak them their veggies )


Is there anymore info you can give us?, such as tank size, if the tank was cycled, pics of your puffer, or even any info about yourself.


Hope you enjoy the forum!


-John

Oh, Its also not true that puffers only eat as much as they need, they can actually eat themselves to death! although thats very hard to do.

if hes 2" long, hes still a juvenile, so he should be fed every other day, and again, I usually feed to where there is a slight bulge, but not a beer bellied state. Try to vary the food each feeding if you can, it will help insure that he grows up properly.

also, if you search the forums or look at the stickys and library articles, there are many usefull articles on feeding.


-John

I agree with The Fisherman here, except on the brine shrimp. Very poor nutritionally.

I'm w/lisalisa.

Oh, I wasnt suggesting using brineshrimp as a staple diet,I should have stated to only use it as an occasional treat.


Thanks guys! ( scores point on board for the fisherman )


-John

Live brine are great for interesting new-to-captivity fish in feeding; frozen brine are tank pollution with almost no food value in relation to their waste load. IMHO, there are too many nutritious foods available to waste bioload and money on brine shrimp.

RTR wrote:Live brine are great for interesting new-to-captivity fish in feeding; frozen brine are tank pollution with almost no food value in relation to their waste load. IMHO, there are too many nutritious foods available to waste bioload and money on brine shrimp.

Oh, I didnt know that, ill keep that in mind. thanks RTR.


-John

Well, my puffer is doing quite well right now... he lives in a 7 gallon tank. I change 20% of the water twice a week. Im still thinking the tank might be too small for him since he's such a messy eater. I recently noticed that there are baby snails in my puffer tank. Is this bad?? I hope he doesn't eat them all at once. He doesn't even seem to notice they are there right now and still goes for the meal worms right as i drop em....

I find it hard to feed him snails.... he seems less interested in something that doesn't move so much....

He has lots of bog wood in his tank and he loves to hide under them after being fed. He'll come right up to the window when he notices someone coming near the tank....

Yes, full grown common puffers need at least a 20 gallon tank, otherwise he will get stunted, so his body will stop growing but his organs will keep growing, and it will eventually kill him.

How long have you had the puffer? was the tank cycled before you put him in?

Try crushing the snail before feeding it too him, sometimes that will help. otherwise there are some threads on here about using garlic juice to stimulate their apetite, but i have no experience with using this method.

The baby snails should be fine.

-John

Baby snails aren't bad at all. You're puffer will eat them eventually.