The Puffer Forum

Hello, I feed my puffers live brine shrimp and live bloodworms. They eat only a little bit. there appetites have def decreases over the last few months.

I am wondering if getting some snails they could eat might be a good idea. What type of snails will DPs eat? will they eat them at all?! how many?

thanks

Ramshorns and pond snails.

If they seem to be loosing weight, not just appetite, keep your eyes out, internal parasites are a possibility.

hmmm. They are a little thinner now. have been that way for a few months. I could try to take a picture.

what would I treat them with for internal parasites? I also have two otos with them... would they be okay with the medicine?

You can soak their food in gel tek ultra cure PX, but it might be hard to get the otos to take that, and they do also need to be treated - they could easily snub soaked food pellets and live on algae, and carry on the parasites. I recently wormed one of my larger puffers that the gel tek failed on with Flubenol-15, (just google flubenol, the site that sells it will be the first one, and yes they ship internationally) a treatment that is suspended in the water; that is an option as well, unlike the jungle tabs it seems to be effective on internal parasites just being added to the water.

Good advice Nick and BM.

If you can't find small enough pond or ramshorn snails, you can try using a object to smash the snails, then the DPs go after the meat. Just BE SURE not to crush the snail with you're fingers...a shard of snail shell is very sharp!