The Puffer Forum

Hello, I have had my hairy puffer (called Frankenstein) over a year. I am pretty certain she is female based on the lack of ciri ('hairy' growths on her skin), she is 5 inches nose to tail and is housed in a 100 litre on her own (save for 3 bleeding heart tetras she has been unable to catch) with a large bogwood stump she hides under when not hungry. I got lots of advice before getting her and I actually rescued her from a bloke at my lfs whose partner wasn't looking after her properly. She has grown 2 inches since I got her and she is very interactive and highly aggressive! She gets a diet of muscles, prawn, calimari and live ghost/feeder shrimp and red crabs (live food about 2-3 times a month). She was being feed 2-3 times a week to max her growth potential. However, I recently noticed she is getting a little chunky around the hips. Is this normal for females of the species or have I simply made her fat? She is down to 1 meal a week now and I am just wondering if am right that she needs to go on a diet? And if so how? She is still begging for food 2 days after feeding and will destroy any food put into the tank, iwill try to post pictures shortly. Thanks

If it is a female she could be carrying eggs. This will wax and wane over time if the case. Btw love the name thats what the little guy in my avatar is called.

Might it be logical to suggest two equally-spaced feedings per week of less caloric volume per session ?
One week seems to be a long time to go between meals.

It sounds like you have a wonderful fish, congrats.

Cut down to maybe 2x per week, just enough to rounden the tummy. If it's too late to spot a slight roundening (is that a word?) then 2 light meals a week should get her back in shape in no time. Lurkers use little energy as they pretend to be a stone, make her chase her meals too lol

Yeah, lurkers don't burn much, just lurking all day...

Thanks for the advice, I will get her on to light meals twice a week. I have already increased her live food intake (basically to increase her movement/hunting) and when she gets frozen food I fight with her so she has to chase and wrestle it. She gets very upset with this a spits water at me! Still hard to resist her begging but in the interests of keeping her healthy I have learned to control myself. It's no exaduration to say she is a real pet to me and is by far the best fish I have ever kept.... And she was the motivating reason why I took my cichlids back to the lfs and now have a very small fahaka in my 90g!