The Puffer Forum

Hi everyone! I'm new to this forum (and puffers) but I'm pretty sure I've done my homework successfully with tank set-up/brackish water, etc. My question is about feeding

I have 2 F8 puffers who are probably both around an inch long. I tried feeding them frozen food and pellets but they did not really take to either so I got some ghost shrimp and snails. I had 15 ghost shrimp and probably 10 real small pond snails that I put in the tank maybe 24 hours ago and as of right now it looks like there's maybe 3 shrimp and 0 snails left and the puffers look VERY fat! Is this normal? because I was thinking that amount of live food would last them awhile! How much would you feed puffers this size? I wouldn't mind breeding snails if I needed to (I'd just have to go out and get more!) but is there a way to get them to recognize frozen food as actual food to eat?

Thanks!

Welcome!

Do not worry, it is normal to see their belly expand when feeding as I have a very similar species (Green Spotted Puffer). Just do not make a habit of feeding them to a point to where they cannot swim as this is unhealthy and they can even get injured by actually bursting from too much food. You should feed small puffers once a day 6 days a week. Try a variety of snails (avoid MTS ones though), brine shrimp, bloodworms, and even raw shrimp and clams meant for human consumption. Occasionally you can feed them live food such as small crabs (fiddlers) and ghost shrimp. I had a dozen ghost shrimp and they were gone in a few days. Avoid feeder fish! Hope this helps.

BTW What is your tank size? A 29-55 gallon tank would be an ideal habitat for a pair of F8's.

Pufferpunk is a lady of great experience and will give you very honest and blunt advice as she has been in this hobby for many years. Here is her article on the Figure 8 Puffer: viewtopic.php?f=68&t=28692

If you put plenty of live food in they will feast now and worry about it later lol. They don't know how to save food, I assume you defrosted the frozen food thoroughly before offering it to them. Try adding crushed garlic to the water you soak/defrost their food in, they love it

bertie 83 wrote:If you put plenty of live food in they will feast now and worry about it later lol. They don't know how to save food,

lol! that is so true! figgy combs every inch of the tank for bloodworms before shes satisfied that theyre all in her stomach XD
then 10 minutes later, shes searching again and trying to convince me shes starving

Brine shrimp is not very nutritious.

have you tried live blackworms? every puffer ive had could never resist any type of worms. i have my puffers on a hikari bloodworm diet, adding snails whenever i go to aqualife and get some. i use the hikari brand because its seems to be the only 'flat' pack of bloodworms out there. all the others come in those cubes.

Update on my information from yesterday: both of my puffers were swimming around with full bellies when I woke up this morning ... so there must have been SOME live food left over in their tank which is good ... I was worried about them eating all of that at once!

it is normal to see their belly expand when feeding as I have a very similar species (Green Spotted Puffer). Just do not make a habit of feeding them to a point to where they cannot swim as this is unhealthy and they can even get injured by actually bursting from too much food. You should feed small puffers once a day 6 days a week. Try a variety of snails (avoid MTS ones though), brine shrimp, bloodworms, and even raw shrimp and clams meant for human consumption. Occasionally you can feed them live food such as small crabs (fiddlers) and ghost shrimp. I had a dozen ghost shrimp and they were gone in a few days. Avoid feeder fish! Hope this helps.

I'm definitely avoiding feeder fish! And I don't think they ate enough that they couldn't swim their bellies just expanded a whole lot! I think I'll probably just try and get more snails to put in there for now and maybe eventually they'll decided that frozen food is okay to eat as well. Plus hunting for the live food seemed to keep them entertained for quite awhile.

BTW What is your tank size? A 29-55 gallon tank would be an ideal habitat for a pair of F8's.

My tank is a 29 gallon cycled and I don't have a thing to measure how much salt is in it, but I've been adding a tablespoon per 5 gallons (because that's what the LFS told me to do) it's on the list of things I should buy

Pufferpunk is a lady of great experience and will give you very honest and blunt advice as she has been in this hobby for many years. Here is her article on the Figure 8 Puffer: viewtopic.php?f=68&t=28692

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I read this article earlier! It was super informative, but thanks again for the link you can never have too much information!

have you tried live blackworms? every puffer ive had could never resist any type of worms.

I don't have any idea what I blackworm is or where to get one? Could someone point me in the right direction?[

I assume you defrosted the frozen food thoroughly before offering it to them. Try adding crushed garlic to the water you soak/defrost their food in, they love it

I did defrost it in tank water first and tried to strain off most of the extra juice that was in there! I hadn't heard of putting garlic in the water before but I'll try it! Thanks for the tip

you are using marine type salt, right? not 'aquarium' salt? lol, i just want to make sure! anyway, if theyre eating fine, dont worry about live worms(i can get them from my lfs but dont know any resources online), but you should try some bloodworms because that is a good staple diet for them with crushed snails every now and then to keep their beaks in check.

also, instead of mixing up salt and water, your lfs might sell ready made seawater, then you can just mix that with the water you use for water changes to get the desired salinity. i bought a gallon of distilled water just to use the container to get my lfs's seawater in so you dont have to go out and buy an expensive container for that.

edit again: i googled blackworms and you can porbably find something lol! https://www.google.com/search?num=30&hl ... l11j2l13l0

I'm using "instant ocean" I'll try and find some bloodworms for them to eat next time I go into town!

And it looks like blackworms might come from california (from that google search) so I should be able to find some pretty close to me since I live in Oregon I've just never really looked for them.

BaileyH wrote: I'm using "instant ocean" I'll try and find some bloodworms for them to eat next time I go into town!

And it looks like blackworms might come from california (from that google search) so I should be able to find some pretty close to me since I live in Oregon I've just never really looked for them.

yeah thats what i figured lol! if you have a petsmart near you, go look in their frozen fish food section and there should be small flatpacks of hikari bloodworms. you can break off a small amount to defrost to feed them.

sounds perfect! Thanks!

BaileyH wrote:sounds perfect! Thanks!

youre welcome. yeah, i rather the flatpacks over cubes and hikari seems to be the best brand.