The Puffer Forum

Hi all,
So I've had Bean and Blimp (both are dwarf puffers, in a fully cycled 10 gallon tank with plants and rocks, 1F 1M) for over four months now. They have been wonderful little pets who have taken a liking to me and follow me everywhere around the room!
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But that's not my issue. I will be going on a vacation for two weeks. I don't know how long they can last without food and I searched everywhere. How do I feed them during this time period? They eat ghost shrimp, a variety of pond and ramshorn snails, and frozen bloodworms.

I'm currently thinking of:
-Doing a 50% water change and feeding them 2 bloodworms each the night before I leave (this worries me)
-Bury snails underneath the gravel so they can reproduce, so essentially a self sustaining snail farm (but the water quality aftermath can be a problem)
-Get a handful of ghost shrimp that they can snack on/hunt (same with under-the-substrate snail farm)

So puffer experts, what do you think? I'm getting really desperate, but that's probably because I panic too much...

i'd have a friend feed them, at least once every other day, I had a pair, left for two weeks, and they had starved to death by the time i returned
if you could add something like cherry shrimp, that might alleviate some of the hunger

Another thing to be concerned with is water quality over that 2 weeks. If there are snails in the tank that aren't completely consumed by the puffers and are just nipped and killed, the rest of the snail's body will rot inside the shell. Over a 2 week time period with many larger snails? It wouldn't take long for a small tank to spike with nitrates. So, you don't want big snails in the tank while you are gone for so long, but small ones that are the size of the puffers' eyes would be good. Some people keep the lights off in the tank while they are away for that amount of time because the fish will be less active. Ideally, if you could get a friend to come by at least once to check on them and give them a good feeding, I think you could get them through your vacation.