The Puffer Forum

Hello everyone, just got my first two dwarf puffers last week on Thursday for a 10g cycled tank.

One has been doing fine and eating bloodworms whenever I feed her. The other doesn't even bother with them. Tried mysis shrimp and krill as well and nothing.

He looks healthy dark colors, no sunken tummy despite not eating. I saw him inflate yesterday for a moment and hast done it since that I have seen. He is constantly looking at the plants I have and I see him trying to bite the driftwood constantly.

I had 3 snails in the tank and now don't see any but only seen the one the eats looking at them and trying to nibble them so I believe she ate them.

Also tried soaking the food with garlic and still nothing. Any ideas?


Thank you

Oh yesss, picky puffer syndrome! It sounds poopy, but waiting until he is hungry, aka fasting for several days will usually change the prospective. My passive female will only eat snails when it's lights out, but she eats them. Some are very resistant to dead live food. Wiggling the bloodworm from the top or in outflow helps mimic life and can help. If you believe it's truly related to taste you can try: frozen brine shrimp, daphnia, or blackworms. Or live ghost shrimp (babies usually) and about any live worms. Just make sure to rinse any food in food tank water first!

Thanks for the reply, not sure if it has to do with taste as he won't even make an attempt to eat it. I actually had bought a few ghost shrimp to see if he would eat them, so far they are all there.

Just worried how much longer he can go without eating its been about 6 days now.

Hey!!

I am having the exact same problem. I have tried the frozen blood worms/black worms, pest snails, and ghost shrimp. I think I may have gotten ghost shrimp that were too big for him. The only thing he will eat is pest snails, but he eats them so quickly I am afraid of over feeding him.

I don't know what else to do!!

That is indeed very scary, I know this fear well.

My two females came in so sick and sunken in I didn't imagine they would last the night. They wouldn't even eat snails. To date they will eat snails, blood worms, and a nibble of krill. The end. That's it. I have to pull some silly stuff to get them to eat the snails. I have to float the snails on their back so the girls can see their foot reaching out trying to find a wall to suck to. If they don't see the movement the snail will sink to the ground and become clean up crew. Some people have success treating with "entice" which is a Gallic soak for food. My girls won't eat live shrimp or dead shrimp so I can't help there. Keeping snails in the tank should ensure they eat, it sounds like he's searching the wood for snails and live food. As long as there's a few in the tank, and with the ghost shrimp it will ensure he has food when he changes his mind.

Krill isn't good for puffers

Freeze-dried krill should be avoided, but frozen krill should be fine.

Even for freshwater puffs?

Stay away from freeze dried foods at all costs. If you have to use them make sure it is fully re-hydrated before feeding, place in a cup of tank water 10 min before feeding. Everything fed should be dosed with vitamins like vitachem. For picky pea puffers you cant go wrong with live blackworms, but pest snails are great if you can keep up a consistent supply of them.

No I was talking about the frozen krill

Hi Hadla! Frozen krill is fine but should only be used as treat, its like puffer catnip, and not a main diet staple due to the risk of lockjaw.

Yeah that's what I thought lol, hi haven't seen you in a while

Sorry to derail but I feed frozen (not freeze dried) krill once per week. Is that a problem? I am a new puffer owner and don't want to screw things up. I thought variety was good and he loves the krill!


Edit: So I can actually be helpful to the OP - try to find some live blackworms. I bet he will not be able to resist.

I've personally had no issues with my puffers eating. I feed mine blood worms, snails (pond and ramshorn) and they eat my Molly?Swordtail fry whenever they have them.

When I got my three puffers, two were dead set against eating, well, anything at first. I freaked out a bit, then let them fast, then used an eyedropper and thawed bloodworms. They were real suckers for slightly squeezing out bloodworms, releasing the bit (so they'd go back in), and repeating. It seemed to tease them into acceptance. They lasted four years after that, with an 80% bloodworm/20% snail diet, until my buddy did not follow through in babysitting them.

Also, I've never personally experienced lockjaw because I fed krill (at most) once a month. That said, I didn't feed more because of the repeated cautions I heard about it (even with FW).