The Puffer Forum

I've been chided by a few people (and have found posts saying the same thing) who told me that the chitin in the exoskeleton of mealworms is very difficult for puffers, and even reptiles to digest. I'm hoping I can get a slightly more solid answer than what I've been able to find looking on the internet, but the exoskeletons/shells of crays, snails, shrimp, and most everything we feed our puffers also contain chitin. Does anyone else feed their puffers mealworms? Have you ever had any problems with it as an occasional treat? Why does the chitin matter since they get it in their other foods, and seem to be able to dissolve fish bones? Thanks!

Tank: 4 liter custom-shaped sphere
Contents: 1 Brainfish
Ph: 7.4
Ammonia, nitrites, nitrates: ?
Problem: Cloudy/muddy water
Can you help me?

I have fed many puffers mealworms, but only "white" mealworms - which have not yet hardened. But that was back when I raised them myself for other critters and could give the fresh soft ones to fish.

Very old (10 years and up) puffer tanks in my house tend to have substrates which have a recognizable percentage of crushed snail/shrimp shell small pieces mixed in the substrate. In the siphon tube when full-depth vacuuming it forms a defined layer atop the gravel in the siphon tube but does not get carried off with the finer debris. I suppose that most of those broken bits are blown out the g\ill covers or the mouth. But they stay around forever - until the tank is broken down. Bits of mealworm exoskeleton will be packaged into poop pods and are visible when those are vacuumed out. They do not appear to be significantly affected by gut passage. So I passed on feeding hardened mealworms to the puffers or other fish.

FWIW, YMMV

So it's an educated/experienced guess rather than a proven fact?

That makes sense that they spit it out through their gills, but couldn't necessarily do that with a "hard' mealworm since the body and exoskeleton are so firmly attached. With shrimp, crays, and snails, it seems to pop right off. It's so great to have you in this forum RTR, you really do know your stuff.

Insects make up a big part of the diet of a number of puffers such as Auriglobus modestus, which is confirmed from the stomach contents of wild caught fishes, so I don't think the Chitin is a big problem. Mealworms, however, depending on what they are fed can contain about 40% fat, so I'd feed them not too often.

Agreed. I generally feed them to my puffers only once a week due to the high fat content.

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LilGreenPuffer wrote:So it's an educated/experienced guess rather than a proven fact?

Why else would I add FWIW, YMMV?

I waste time on many things, but doing statistically significant experiment runs of "treat" foods - those are not something I would waste my time running.

I don't know what YMMV means. I had always thought that people on the forum said that chitin was harmful because someone had proven it somehow, not because you had made an educated guess. I don't think educated guesses are bad things, I was just wanting to confirm that it hadn't been proven by studies or experiments or anything like that.

YMMV = Your Mileage May Vary. It appeared as a hedge factor on the (required) miles per gallon (mpg or MPG) data on new car invoices, and which no one ever got in the real world. It implies that I really do not expect many others to get the same results, as everybody keeps fish differently, but that any data given is what I have observed in my own tanks. You choice is to accept it or reject it. I offer experienced observations. Acceptance or rejection by others is their issue, not mine.

Do feel free to reject anything in my posts you do not like, and to refute it if you can and wish to do so. Or you may even ignore my posts completely. Thar too is beyond my control or concern.

If you want hard data, go to the scientific literature, not the hobby web.

Enough off-topic for me. Are you done?

Yes, thanks.