The Puffer Forum

I have had a F8 puffer for six months now. He is currently about two inches long. About three weeks ago he stopped eating snails. I was feeding him common pond snails that my LFS gave me for free. Now each time I try to get my puffer to eat a snail, which is only about the size of his eye, he doesn't even take an interest and lets the snail sit on the bottom of the tank. Before this started to happen he would eat the snail right after I dropped it in the water before it hit the substrate. I am unable to find any other type of snail to either buy or get for free in my area. I tested the water parameters and ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate are all fine. The SG is 1.005 and the temp is 76 F. He doesn't seem like he is sick because he readily eats krill, brineshrimp, and bloodworms.

I'm worried that my puffer's teeth will grow too big and he won't be able to eat. Is a two inch puffer able to eat cockles or clams? Are cricket exoskeletons hard enough to wear down a puffer's teeth? Does anyone have any suggestions for keeping his teeth in check that may help? I don't want to try trimming his teeth myself unless I have to. Thank you for your help - Tim

I have a similar problem with my F8 Tim, so will be interested in any replies. For now I am partly crushing bigger snails which she does seem to like and eat happily. I am sure its not such a good workout for her teeth but I can certainly hear her crunching away so I am hoping that is bettter than nothing!!The little snails she was completely ignoring and I was finding them rotting in the tank which I am sure can't be good for her , so i have given up with them for now!!
Good luck
Sue

I found the same, my 3" GSP stopped eating whole snails but will readly eat larger ones that I have crushed.

My figure 8's never been lucky enough to have snails as small as his eyes. He routinely crunches through european ramshorns about 3X the size of his eye (he catches them midwater and really works to break into them).

Could the smaller ones be too small to be of interest? Can your fish crunch through bigger ones without your help if you leave them to try?

Eric

Just a thought, but I feed him bloodworms or live earhwroms etc. every morning. Could this regular feeding of foods easier to eat than snails have something to do with it?

One of the members here feeds bloodworm off a slate at the bottom of the tank.They say it helps with the wearing of the teeth.

I think your figure 8 is likely just full from the morning feeding. RTR is his libarary article states he only feeds adult (like yours) figure 8s every other day. I do the same, and he eats anything I toss in there on the second day.

Maybe give that a try.

Eric