The Puffer Forum

So I have been using the search feature and looking at diet, vitamins and generally anything related to food.

From what Ive gathered the consensus is that pelleted fish food is not a good puffer diet. Kind of wonder why that is the thinking? My other fish (cichlids, bichir, pleco, Australian rainbows, platy) all thrive on a pretty exclusive diet of pellets with an occasional treat once a week or so. Today I fed my hairy puffer a clam and made a small incision in the foot portion and inserted two small Hikari sinking carnivore pellets. I normally feed these to my bichir but figured there would be a little vitamin boost in there that he normally would not get. I have also started to add a bit of Boyd's vitamin to the water, though I question if it really works that well taken into the fishes skin. Seems like it would be more effective as a food soak.

I guess the other aspect is the fact that most puffers would not accept pelleted food so I guess that is another reason not to feed it. I dont think my puffer would eat pellets on his own but a few slipped into a meal every now and then seems like a good way to get some additional vitamins into his system.

Anyone feed their puffer pellets?

No, but I'm interested to see what the consensus is on slipping the pellets in. It seems sound in theory, but I'm so far removed from being anything but relatively clueless that I'm waiting with you to see what everyone else says.

I do have a few choices in type/brand of pellet to use. The brands I have available are NLS, Omega One and Hikari Sinking Carnivore.

My concern with the Hikari is that it is high protein at 47% but isnt that pretty much what our puffers are eating anyway with the clams, shrimp, etc.?
It also has a pretty high ash content at 17% which usually means lots of bone and scales in the mix (If I am understanding fish food ingredients correctly).
So is the vitamin benefit worth slipping a few pellets in on occasion?

NLS would have you believe any and every fish can thrive on NLS alone.... If you dont believe me, just look at their website.
It has lower protein levels but lots of added things like fruit and vegi extracts, Spirulina, garlic.
This one to me seems to have all those little extras a puffer could benefit from with ash level at 8-9%

Omega One is the staple that I feed the rest of my fish and I like it because it keeps my water the cleanest out of all the different pellet foods Ive used.
I think it would be as good as the NLS to give a little boost to the food.

Its difficult to replicate the fishes diet. All the food we give is generally 'clean' and not gut loaded with goodies like found in nature. I feel like slipping a pellet or two in on occasion would be like gut loading to give them those trace vitamins and things they may miss.

I have a little Tupperware box of garden snails, happily feasting on all sorts of vegetable and fruit goodness. Give them a month, and they will hopefully be vitamin packed little morsels of pufferific goodness

Stratters wrote:I have a little Tupperware box of garden snails, happily feasting on all sorts of vegetable and fruit goodness. Give them a month, and they will hopefully be vitamin packed little morsels of pufferific goodness

That is good, because what they eat, the puffer will get. I have been buying grocery store seafood and I just dont think it is enough in nutrients and feel the supplements (pellets) would help.

Puffers generally refuse pellets. If you are giving puffers live food then feeding their prey pellets/ veggies is defo worthwhile. A suitable vitamin for food soaks is a very good idea

Ive seen a couple instances of them taking pellets but I know its next to impossible. What about 'gut loading' dead foods with pellets? What is the consensus on that?

Nothing wrong with trying to vary their diet. My fahaka has a bunch of large cichlid & different species of catfish for tank mates. In addition to the live worms & foods from the produce dept for my fahaka, the other fellas get an assortment of different meals, including pellets, which my fahaka never touches. All frozen meals are always defrosted in Vita-Chem water.

Can anyone recommend a good vitamin soak that's available in the UK. I can only find Boyd's Marine, and it's £62 for a 4oz bottle <winces>

Vitazin by waterlife

NIMFT, period. If you insist on trying, watch the feeding carefully. A very high percentage of the pellet tends to get blown out through the gills. Puffer tanks do not extra pollution, they get quite enough with real foods and puffer poop and shell debris w/some food still attached. Those fragments can be scooped or siphoned out, but what a waste of food and risk of more pollution than is required by the nature of the fish.

Those who can and do house puffers w/other fish (I only very rarely do that)* may reap some benefit to the other fish by providing some of the ground-up pellet debris to them, but why not target-feed the other fish while avoiding excess pollution?

*I do commonly try bumblebee gobies w/F-8s.

All IMHO, YMMV

That's a good point, I'm always amazed at the amount of debris blown out when Pig eats an earthworm

bertie 83 wrote:Vitazin by waterlife

Thank you, Bertie

Imbedding the pellet into the food I have zero debris from the pellet itself, it is just from the soft squishy foods like the clam itself. I dont see the harm in adding a pellet or two to his diet by hiding it in his food, so Im going to continue to do it.

Stratters wrote:

bertie 83 wrote:Vitazin by waterlife

Thank you, Bertie

It's about a fiver a bottle buddy