The Puffer Forum

I have had my DPs about 1 week now. The pecking order is being established with my neon still surprisingly on the top lol. But my issue one of my DPs doesn't seem to be eating. I have been feeding thawed blood worms with tweezers. The one who hasn't really eaten will show interest, bully the other DP away form the food, but then just stare at it. He/she also comes with up to the surface and sticks its mouth into the air looking for something but when I move the BW over there again it will chase them then just stare. It isn't skin and bones yet but it certainly doesn't have the nice round tummy like the other puffer who actively eats from the tweezers and searched the gravel for leftovers. Any suggestions? I was going to go to my LFS and grab a few tiny snails but we just got nailed with snow today so that's on hold. I'm hoping that this picky puffer will eventually get hungry enough to take a bite of the BW rather than just stare...

Live black worms are a delicacy for dps or any fish for that matter. If you havent
already I would recommend soaking the food in prazi to make sure they don't have interbal parasites.

We bought six DPs for my son's tank and we have the same issues, four readily take the bloodworm whiles one occasionally takes them and one shows no interest at all. I have a large supply of Malaysian Trumpet Snails from another tank but the DPs can't break down their shells so I crushed some before dropping them in the tank - the bellies of the two picky puffers are now more rotund.