The Puffer Forum

Well, I now have two fat hairy puffers! I defrosted a piece of shell-on shrimp, medium size, and thought I'd try offering them some and see if I could get them to eat anything besides from the guppies. I accidently dropped the shrimp (was using my fingers) in Phil's tank. Had to get a chopstick to get it out (I have short arms). When I picked it up, he attacked it! His mouth opened so wide that he sucked the entire end, the FAT end where the head was detached, into his mouth! It went in at least a half a cm, too! Since he's so little, I didn't want him to eat TOO much, so after he devoured about half of it, I took it out.

After seeing that, I didn't want to offer the rest to Lil with my fingers. So I I got some tongs from the kitchen and held the very end of the tail in it. As soon as I started to lower it into the tank, she came zooming off the bottom and within seconds, had chewed up and swallowed the rest of it! OMG, that was amazing to watch!

I'm still having a problem getting Justin the palembang to eat though. Well sure, he ate some guppies last week but I need to get him to eat some frozen stuff, too. He shows no interest in live blackworms, they just drop onto his head. I tried soaking the shrimp in garlic and dangling it on a string, tied the string so it would move in the current and I wouldn't have to hold it (in case he didn't want to eat while being watched), and tried dangling it with the tongs. He ignores it on the string, even when its left in there overnight. With the tongs, he follows it around with some interest, getting really close to the point where his lips almost touch it, then he turns around and wanders away. He hasn't had anything to eat since his last meal of guppy fry (about four) last Wednesday night.

Any suggestions?

Oh awesome, I am so jealous about the baileyi's!

For Justin, try some live earthworms/nightcrawlers or if you have any snails around, you could try them as well. The turdgis I got from PP really turned up his nose at just about everything I tried but those two foods. I have yet to try shrimp with him though...

I just adore them, they were definitely worth the wait, effort and expense! I didn't get my camera back today but will try to get it tomorrow and take some pics.

I have some snails but was hoping to hold off on them until Justin eats some shrimp. I don't think he's starving or anything, his tummy is still rounded. Oddly enough, when I was watching him a little while ago, I saw him grab a piece of white gravel in his mouth, then spit it back out. I sure as hell hope he hasn't been eating gravel! I did notice that he seemed more interested in the shrimp when it was holding still, as opposed to when it was moving. He kept running away from it when it moved, but came real close if it just sitting there. So this time I just dropped it onto the gravel, turned off all of the lights and left him alone. Hopefully he'll figure out its food and will take a bite.