The Puffer Forum

Is it ok if my porcupine puffer ONLY eats peas soaked in vitamins?

When I first got my 3" porcupine puffer, he refused to eat clams on half shell or krill. He finally chewed half a piece of krill after two days of not eating. After reading this forum, I tried giving him a pea, and he loved them! After one week, however, all my porcupine puffer wants is peas! He refuses clams, octopus, shrimp, and krill (even infused with garlic supplement). He might give the clam one bite, then he spits it out and ignores it. I've waved squid,shrimp, or krill in front of his face with tongs, but he will shake his head like a child and refuse it. He will RACE across the tank for the peas, though. In fact, we tried giving him frozen brine shrimp with spirulina in the shape of a pea, but he spits it out once he realizes it's not a pea. The tank is filled with live snails and hermit crabs as a cleaning crew, but I haven't seen him eat any of those guys either. Is this healthy for the porcupine? Is this behavior normal for a small porcupine puffer? Should I put him on a fast to get him to eat squid, etc.?

Tank water conditions: ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 0, pH 8.3, s.g. 1.024, 90 gallons. He's the only fish in the tank. It's been cycled with live rock and live sand for over 3 months.

Have you tried live food? Maybe try some river/ghost shrimp or live bloodworms or live garden worms/night crawlers. Maybe he's a vegetarian

I wish mine was

Yes I would try live shrimp gut loaded with meaty foods

One of my GSP's just went thru a "peas only" phase. It may just be a phase with your porky too, especially if you just introduced it into their diet. Either cut them off or keep feeding until they get sick of it and hungry enough to want something else.

I tried a live ghost shrimp yesterday, but the porcupine couldn't catch it. After a while, the porcupine just gave up and begged for more peas.

If that photo in your avatar is your fish, it looks emaciated. DO NOT FEED A SINGLE MORE PEA TO YOUR PUFFER!!! You MUST get it on a healthy, protein diet. Follow all the suggestions given here: library/feeding/problems-feeding-your-puffer/

Has your puffer started eating "normally?"

Not really. I let the porcupine puffer "fast" for a week while I was out of town, hoping that when I returned he would be ready for protein like shrimp, clams, lobster, etc. like the suggestions in the library. When I returned, all the cleaning crew snails and hermit crabs were alive and crawling about. (If he was truly starving, he could eat the snails). When I returned, I dosed some lobster pieces in garlic supplement, and waved it with forceps in front of my puffer's face, but he took one chew, spat it out, then refused to eat any more lobster. The same result occurred with clam and krill - a single chew, then spitting out. The puffer won't touch prawn or squid, no matter how much I wave it.

In the end, since the puffer hadn't eaten in over a week, I gave in and fed it several peas over a few hours. He was delighted. He spat water and even breached the surface of the water by jumping to get the peas before I dropped them in the tank! He chewed and swallowed each pea and started gleefully racing across from one side of the tank to the other. He seems unbelievable overjoyed. So the puffer has won its battle for peas. He looks very healthy and happy to me.

If you want to see the porcupine puffer eating a pea, it's on youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-BBO0b-c5E. That was filmed about a month now. He seems so happy with peas. Now I take the pea shell off first, since it seems easier for the porcupine to puffer to digest without shells.

I'll try some live ghost shrimp again once I have time to stop by the fish store.

I love this subject header!

And I had no idea that puffer fish ate peas.

Debbie

I have heard from my LFS that you can use the garlic supplement to attempt to get fish accustomed to other foods. If he really only will eat pea start soaking the peas in the garlic supplement. After a few feedings, attempt soaking other puffer appropriate foods in this. Hope to hear this puff will diversify its pallet soon.

My porc won't eat lobster, squid or any if that type of stuff. His favorites are raw shrimp I buy at the deli and snails

Marine puffers are more omnivorous then most FW puffers. Many puffers can seem to get fixated on a monotonous diets in captivity. Suggestions such as that offered by casc, Welch4, and others can be tried. You can also try feeding a favorite food w/garlic and a new food also with garlic at the same time - sometimes that has worked well for me also. You can expect any new food to take some time to be accepted if the fish is fixated on a single food. A varied diet is really needed to ensure a better balanced diet.

I love chocolate milk shakes, but know that I cannot live on them. Sometimes we have to teach the pets we keep similarly.

Yeah those are his favorites, not the only things in his diet. How long can fish go without eating?

Original post was from May of this year and the forum member only had three posts, which were all in this topic. I wonder how that puffer is doing now?