The Puffer Forum

What do you guys use? Store-shrimp? He seems to small to eat anything store-bought right now, so I've been trying bloodworms. I don't know what to use to keep his teeth down. He doesn't seem interested in snails.

Reason why your Suvatti has not touched a snail is b/c they generally don't eat the snails. You do not need to feed them anything that would require to file their teeth.

Buy frozen shrimps that are about 1/2-1 inch in length and if it is still to big them cut the portions smaller.

There is also a big fat sticky post on Suvatti Arrowheads up ontop

Juveniles are very keen on snails and willl take them readily.
FRom about an inch to two inches they should be fed a combination of
krill
mussel
cockle
prawn
king prawn
etc.

I have fed mine snails from when they were very young, only small ones but they will take on larger ones. My Suvatti are only now 6 months old and take a range of food including, snails,prawn, the odd garden worm (not often as they are very rich foods for them!)
They do not eat anything frozen but i am trying to train them to take frozen blood worm.

Mussels and Krill are on my list, but Rocker needs to own up to where he gets his supply so i know a good place to source some:)

If your interested my fish blog has some documentation of my experiences with feeding. http://www.stapleton-ward.co.uk search by Puffer info.

Thanks guys (or gals). Still having trouble convincing him to eat as of now, but its still fairly soon. When you feed shrimp, do you just thaw and drop it in or what?

AT, ime, most puffers are just like our DPs in that it can take them a week or two to settle in and feel secure and start eating and acting normal. Be patient, I'm sure it'll come around.

Hmm..I called the LFS I got him from, and he called the place he got them from. He said they had been eating feeder fish (rosies) before they shipped. I still have rosies from feeding my bichir, so I tried that, and he went after it quite vigorously. Of course, I don't want him eating feeders, so I think he'll be fasting until he decides start eating frozen shrimp. I can't do PraziPro until he starts eating frozen. I'm not positive, but I think he may have IP. Sadness.

I work at an LFS. As far as I know while in transit from distributor to distributor they are only feed "feeder fish" of some sort. Every Suvatti that I've gotten in has refused to eat all together for quite some time. I have one Suvatti in the store that I've kept around for several months now. The only way he will eat is if I skewer "food" on the end of a sharpened wooden dowel rod -- even live snails. I have fed him half a dozen or so rosie reds in the past couple of months, which he takes immediately. I'm still trying to ween him of the dowel.
You might try feeding him with a dowel rod. Just lightly poke him in the face a little, he'll take food. It is a bit gross though putting live snails on the end of the dowel.

Leigh wrote:I have fed mine snails from when they were very young, only small ones but they will take on larger ones. My Suvatti are only now 6 months old and take a range of food including, snails,prawn, the odd garden worm (not often as they are very rich foods for them!)
They do not eat anything frozen but i am trying to train them to take frozen blood worm.

Mussels and Krill are on my list, but Rocker needs to own up to where he gets his supply so i know a good place to source some:)

If your interested my fish blog has some documentation of my experiences with feeding. http://www.stapleton-ward.co.uk search by Puffer info.

Krill is tropic marine and can be found in most LFS freezers.
Mussel I used to get from Wharf but Tesco I have found do a no frills type bag which work out cheaper. they also do a cheaper king prawn as well.

Cheers Rocker, Ill try tesco.

As for the problem of getting suvatti to eat. One trick ive learned is keep it moving. Try tying a prawn on a to cotton and go do some reverse fishing:)
Sounds mad, but its the only way my baby's will eat them!

Rocker wrote:Mussel I used to get from Wharf but Tesco I have found do a no frills type bag which work out cheaper. they also do a cheaper king prawn as well.

Cheers for that little tip.

Hilly wrote:

Rocker wrote:Mussel I used to get from Wharf but Tesco I have found do a no frills type bag which work out cheaper. they also do a cheaper king prawn as well.

Cheers for that little tip.

what are Mums for? She found them one day and gave me a call.

They are in a plain bag with just a sticky label on. TBH they are the best quality as well that I have ever bought.