The Puffer Forum

I live in an apartment and i really don't know the neighbors caus i just moved in. What is the best way to keep my juv. gsp's fed if I go on vacation (4 days)? They will eat whatever is dropped in the tank till they explode. What it be ok to feed them a ton before i leave or not.

4 days without food will do very fine. I left mine for 2 weeks without any problems. I would not recommend you to feed very much before leaving either. When feeding them too much, much of the food will pass undigested through their system, and when it comes out again, it can pollute the water. Feed as normal before you leave. Actually it's better to leave fish without food than with food when on vacation. As you can't do water changes while away it's important that there's as little as possible that can make the water quality worse. When I was away for 2 weeks, I had to feed my growing discuses with a feeding automate (or whatever it's called in English). The problem was what to do with the water changes. I made a solution where the person feeding my birds just had to turn on and off the water. But she still found it to difficult to do The result was 5 very ill and 1 very dying discus when I came home So if you feed fish while away, you also have to do water changes. Luckily most fishes (including puffers) can do 2 weeks without food

yeah i agree, don't overfeed and leave them till you get back. Are you sure they are free of internal parasites?

thanks for the imput.
On the parasite thing I don't believe they have any, when they are fed they stay round for a while (e.g. feed at 9am still pretty round at 4pm) But I guess i should look into it a little more. They were both kept in fresh water and there about 1.5 in and I gradually brought them up to brackish and there both bright and happy looking. The only thing I am concerned about is on his belly there is a ring dont know what it is but ive seen other pics of them with the same ring. what would you call that.

4 days would be no problem I don't think, I've done a week when I had to.

The ring on his belly is probably a bite mark from the other puffer. Most of the time you want to keep GSP's as singletons or give them tons of room (30+ gallons each) or they tend to pick on each other.

Yup, pufferbite.

What about leaving a few ghost shrimp to scavage for?