The Puffer Forum

I'm sure a few of you have probably seen this video on YouTube entitled "Green Spotted Puffer - AKA: World's Messiest Eater"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJyCwscFyfs

This video got me thinking that we could probably save some of the eating mess from spreading throughout our tanks and into the substrate if we put food into a a small (but not too small) container submerged inside the tank. The puffers would swim into the container to eat and hopefully most of the mess would remain in there as well. Afterwards we could simply remove this container to dump out the leftover food particles. Has anyone tried this? Any thoughts?

That's the messiest food I have ever seen.. I can't even identify what is that.. I seriously dun think its the puffer fault here.

With proper food given, it doesn't have to be messy. None of my puffer do that.

I have fed a skinny dp up in a seperate container, he got used to the breeding net quickly and would swim in by himself after a while. Unless absolutely necessary I would not put the fish through this stress though.

bertie 83 wrote:I have fed a skinny dp up in a seperate container, he got used to the breeding net quickly and would swim in by himself after a while. Unless absolutely necessary I would not put the fish through this stress though.

What stress if they are going in it on their own though? Think of a puffer going into a small cave or something to hunt food - i would think an open box would be much less stressful. I acknowledge I could be totally wrong here - there is probably some reason more people haven't tried this.

What I had in mind was something like this: http://www.greenfish.co.kr/shop/view.ht ... &scat_uid=

The video is clearly an exaggerated version of what most of us experience but with my F8 I still get chunks of uneaten bloodworms and snails, not to mention the tiny broken particles that are hard to see, spreading all over my tank after each meal.

I tend to just scoop out large bits, the tiny stuff gets drawn out by my 3 x weekly gravel vacs. If its a box they could swim in and out of by themselves stress would be minimal to non existant

IMHO:

1. skoram is correct. The fish is being grossly overfed with an inappropriate food or more exactly with a massived oversized portion of a too-fiabe food. The fish is already more than adequately fed - that belly is fully bulged already.

2. The gravel is too coarse, the food bits will pollute the tank more than is necessary. a finner gravel or sand would allow easier recovery/removal of food bits. A herptile feeding/water dish could serve also a food-holding device. I use such under each om my live blackworm feeder cones to allow another chance for the fish to get the food.

3. The video s an excellent example of how to mis-feed a puuffer (too much by a huge margin, too soft), pollute a tank, mis-house a puffer, magnify or multiply your fish and tank upkeep and cost requirements.

4. Overall it is an excellent example of exactly what and how not to keep a healthy long-lived puffer.

HTH