The Puffer Forum

i set up my new tank about a week ago. it came with some gravel. the gravel was removed, and cleaned very thoroughly a few pounds at a time in 5 gal buckets before put back into the tank. well about a day after they were in the tank i started noticing very tiny snails coming out of the gravel. well needless to say the puffers had a blast eating them up. they were quite fat for a couple days. which i diddnt feed them anything else. my one puffer has lost his belly but my other puffer which is less than 2" is still quite fat. even after a few days. hes kida short so im used to him getting a bit fatter than the other one, but its been a few days and hes still fat after 3 or 4 days without any other food. should i be worried?

I'd say he is fine, just a fatty.

You said you setup your tank a week ago? How'd you cycle it?

Anyway, just try not to overfeed him or anything and you should be okay. You may want to treat them both for IPs (internal parasites) though because if one gets skinnier quicker than the other it could be a problem. Just get some jungle parasite clear fizz tabs, and soak their food in it before feeding them. You can do it with pretty much any food, even snails. Also, the snails that were in the rocks, are they shaped like unicorn horns?

The tank is fully cycled. They have been treated for ips. One is long and one is short. And the short one always seems fatter. Hes just not normally so fat for so long without me feeding him. The snails were so small its hard to say what they were. But there was enough of them to fatten up my puffers.

Unfortunately, fat puffer are IMHO & IME. unhealthy. It will shorten their lives. Any puffer which hold that fat belly 2-3 days after a meal need to be on a diet.

There is probably more snails that he is finding. He is obviously better at finding them than the other

whats the best way to diet these guys? less food? feed every other day?

Yep, less food.
i give my GSP a nice piece of food, but when they stop eating at the first sign of disinterest, i remove the remains.
They look like yours for about 24 hours and then the belly goes back, even so i give them one day nice food, and next day give them only a small cricket o Tenebrio, and some days they don't seem interested on food so i don't give them any.

Hold a piece of shrimp above the tank & whip it in circles, so he swims laps around the tank. Make him work for his dinner! JK

would it be harmful for me to quarantine him inside the tank for a few days in one of these?

http://www.championlighting.com/pics/fi ... fugium.jpg

They are not called pigs for nothing