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Hunting for your own puffer food sources

Posted: Mon May 21, 2012 11:34 pm
by sgtmyers88
Okay today I spent 3 hours digging around in a secluded creek that was a few miles from town and got roughly about 50 small crayfish and a couple dozen pea sized pond snails. Many of the snails had egg sacs attached to them. Looks like I am gonna have some very fat and happy puffers for a while. :D

Oh yeah I even found some freshwater clams.

It was nice to revisit an old childhood hobby. I have not done something like this in years. Sometimes when I went fishing I used to catch small sunfish and catfish and put them in an aquarium. :)

Re: Hunting for your own puffer food sources

Posted: Mon May 21, 2012 11:36 pm
by Nuclear_Glitter
QT everything of course before feeding =]

I wish I could find stuff like this. I am going to start trying harder I think.

Re: Hunting for your own puffer food sources

Posted: Mon May 21, 2012 11:38 pm
by sgtmyers88
I wonder, what medication is safe for using with food crustaceans? All the stuff I have says do not treat them with it.

Re: Hunting for your own puffer food sources

Posted: Mon May 21, 2012 11:47 pm
by Nuclear_Glitter
What are you trying to treat?

If you just QT them for 8 weeks or longer things generally are okay.

Re: Hunting for your own puffer food sources

Posted: Mon May 21, 2012 11:53 pm
by sgtmyers88
Whoops I had only QT for a week or two in the past. And I was just talking about basic disinfection of the feeders.

Re: Hunting for your own puffer food sources

Posted: Tue May 22, 2012 12:03 am
by sgtmyers88
I also saw a school of these sunfish, these were the same ones I used to catch and keep in an aquarium as a kid. I am surprised that people do not try to put these in the aquarium trade dubbed as North American Cichlids or something. lol

They do look a lot like Jack Dempseys or even Firemouth Cichlids IMO

They are such a pretty fish and don't get huge unlike the popular Oscar Cichlids. The largest I have ever seen one of these get was about 7 inches.

Image

Re: Hunting for your own puffer food sources

Posted: Tue May 22, 2012 12:06 am
by Nuclear_Glitter
Very pretty fish indeed.

Most people only QT for a week or two, but IMO that just isn't long enough; especially when they're originally wild.

Really if you are to QT for 8 weeks or more you don't need to add medicine for disinfection. Just doing water changes and keeping everything in the QT good helps get rid of any nasties.