The Puffer Forum

I have read many posts on how krill is not a good food for your puffer. I dont understand why. Blue whales live on krill alone. Many fish eat loads of krill in the wild. They are high in protein, omega 3 and vit A. Its the main ingredient in the Ocean Nutrition line of frozen fish foods. Can someone please explain to me why we shouldnt be feeding these to our puffers?

Thanks for your responses

I don't think it is the live foods they are worried about, it is the freeze dried product.

Just as a steak is not equal to beef jerky to us.

oh, so frozen krill is a quality food?

that I can't say. If in doubt always treat the food with vitamin water. a supplement like Kent Marine Zoe or similar (not the sports drinks)

I do treat the krill with a supplement when I use it. Im just trying to understand why everyone thinks krill isnt a quality food.

If krill can become bad because sometimes after puffers eat krill they won't eat anything else. This then becomes a problem because krill, if feed too often especially as a staple food, has been shown to cause lockjaw in puffers. That is more or less why krill is bad.

briguy44 wrote:If krill can become bad because sometimes after puffers eat krill they won't eat anything else. This then becomes a problem because krill, if feed too often especially as a staple food, has been shown to cause lockjaw in puffers. That is more or less why krill is bad.

so if i can maintain about 10% of his diet from krill, that would be a good thing? I mean, krill is a quality food if I can get my puffer to eat other foods also? Why does krill cause lockjaw?

briguy44 wrote:If krill can become bad because sometimes after puffers eat krill they won't eat anything else. This then becomes a problem because krill, if feed too often especially as a staple food, has been shown to cause lockjaw in puffers. That is more or less why krill is bad.

that I'm not too sure about...
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/volume_6/ ... minase.htm

it doesn't mention krill at all.

briguy44 is correct. There have been several cases of lockjaw in puffers when krill is a steady diet.

I don't really have anything to back it up my claim with other than if you type in "krill lockjaw" into the forum search here there are tons of hits of others saying it does in fact cause lockjaw. So basically I will take others word for it.

briguy44 wrote:I don't really have anything to back it up my claim with other than if you type in "krill lockjaw" into the forum search here there are tons of hits of others saying it does in fact cause lockjaw. So basically I will take others word for it.

I agree Ive done the same search ! Nothing scientifically backing it . But seems to lots of real life experience backing it up though! Ive got 2 packs of krill just to get rid of it the anemone and spotted hermit have been eating them ! I wont feed it to my Petey!

Im with everyone else, havent seen any hard science but read enough to keep me from tempting fate

There has been some research done by North Carolina State University about krill causing lockjaw in puffers and other predatory fish. Perhaps if you do a search that way you may come up with some research based results.

J-P wrote:

briguy44 wrote:If krill can become bad because sometimes after puffers eat krill they won't eat anything else. This then becomes a problem because krill, if feed too often especially as a staple food, has been shown to cause lockjaw in puffers. That is more or less why krill is bad.

that I'm not too sure about...
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/volume_6/ ... minase.htm

it doesn't mention krill at all.

Awesome link! thank you. Best part about this article:

However, most of the time predatory fishes maintain a kind of balance between those prey fish rich in thiaminase and those fish rich in Vitamin B1. As long as the predator has a reasonably varied diet, it should get enough Vitamin B1 to stay healthy. It should be mentioned that in the examples of the sick salmonids from the Baltic, the key problem was that they were not eating a varied diet, but mostly consuming just one type of prey.


So you must compensate if you do decide to feed krill by adding foods that have B1 in them or feed extra food that doesnt contain thiaminase such as:

Invertebrates
Bivalves:
Cockle (Cardium spp.)

Crustaceans:
Marine shrimps (sp. indet.; Hawaii)
Portuguese crabs (sp. indet.)

Cephalopods:
Brief squid, calmar (Lolliguncula brevis)



Thanks alot J-P!

Can we not class personal experience as scientific? If we compile results and see something is potentially bad that is not as such personal evaluation as it is taking in facts and making an informed decision. Hence being scientific? I could be wrong