The Puffer Forum

I recently acquired a small Fahaka Puffer around 2 inches. I put him in an established tank with normal parameters and I had everything all set for him. I've had him for 5 days now but I haven't seen him eat anything yet. Tried feeding him frozen blood worms, frozen brine shrimp, live ghost shrimp, and live tubifex worms. Haven't had any luck finding any snails that are suitable for him yet. I'll be worried in a few days but I'm still waiting for him to start eating. I did a bit of research and one of the forum members here said that puffers are fine even if they don't eat for a month. Is this true? What can I do to make my puffer eat? I've tried wriggling the blood worms with tongs, putting it inside a pipette and moving it around, and I put in the ghost shrimp which he seems interested in but he isn't fast enough to get them. I tried semi-killing a ghost shrimp and put it in the tank. He nibbled at it but that was it. I've left the live tubifex worms in a floating plastic container inside the aquarium as a last resort. Some of them pop out halfway from the holes, its been in there for about 12 hours so hopefully he got curious enough to eat it. Any pro tips?

Welcome to the forum. It is not uncommon for puffers to go on hunger strikes in new surroundings, fahakas have a voracious appetite and I'm sure he will soon start eating. If you are getting concerned crush a clove of garlic and add a little water and his food, allow to soak for a few hours and then feed. Puffers love having garlic breath, it's almost irresistible to them

Thank you! Off to buy some garlic! Hopefully this works as I'm starting to see him get a little bit interested in the worms I put inside the tank. The worms will probably die if I put it in but at least the fahaka will like it. I will update tomorrow.

Thanks for your help bertie! I think that did the trick. I took off a couple of legs of some ghost shrimp so my puffer could get to it easily and soaked it in the garlic solution, it was still alive when it went into the tank and my puffer ate it right away! Now its accepting other types of food without the garlic. Thanks for you help! I'll post pics of him when he grows up a little.

Better gut-load those ghost shrimp, they nave no nutrition by themselves.

Should I soak them in vita Chem? It doesn't want to eat anything else but the worms and ghost shrimp for now.

Soak any food you feed to the shrimp in Vita-chem.