The Puffer Forum

Hey i have a GSP about 1 1/2 2inchs. I feed him snails daily, frozen blood worms, freeze dried krill, and the occasional live ghost shrimp.

I was just wondering if the Freeze dried krill is crunchy enough to keep his teeth ground down. Its full shell on whole hikari krill so its like eating a live shrimp pretty much.

Just wondering, i read the feeding article and its pretty clear on what they eat but not to clear on what foods do a good job on keeping the teeth ground down. i mean a snail shell is more crunchy then a shrimp, and a mussel or crab leg is more crunchy then both. But A puffer can suck a snail out of its shell, and not eat a mussel right or something to be effective.

Welcome to TPF,

GSP's aren't prone to overgrown teeth. The daily snails should be enough to keep them nice and trim.

Are you soaking the krill before you feed? Most people soak in vitamins and drain excess liquids before putting the reinvigorated food into the tank.

Yea i soak the freeze dried krill for about 10min in a cup of tank water. Then use some surgical pliers to hold it while he eats his fill. Sometimes i add vitamins to the cup while it gets back to um i guess un freeze dried lol.

And this is a great site! Made learning bout puffers easy.

Luckily I have a 30 gal planted tank, that goes through many stages of Snail infestation! lol So i have a never ending supply of Ramshorn snails!

do you think he would eat some of the frozen crayfish from the store. Like cut a claw off one day then a tail the next? They are about 2-3inch crayfish about 20 in a bag.

Welcome to the site

When he gets bigger cockle in shell would be a good addition to his diet, he will enjoy ripping through the shells to get to the meat.

I would only recommend the krill for occasional use, its not a good staple food. Often causes constipation which can lead to death if used too often.

Freeze-drieed plankton is good as well.

is frozen krill considered as bad as freeze dried krill ???

As a staple, yes.

In your opinion, what are staple favorites, other than snails of course -- ?

I feed a lot of worms, pieces of people shrimp & FD plankton to my puffs.

Walmart sells Trout/Panfish worms that are a really good size for a 3" or bigger puffer, and nightcrawlers for even bigger puffers, say over 7", very cheap and meaty, just lack crunch factor.

i've never done worms, other than blood worms (which are worms-ha!)

i'm feeding a mix of pond snails, prawn, blood worms, krill, mysis and cockle ---- in that order of amount and frequency -- is there anyhting you'd add to round out the diet for a fig8??

Earthworms would probably be healthier than the prawn, krill, or mysis, so you could consider substituting it for one of them... the high-snail diet will probably keep him in good health and trim.

Earthworms have more protein than beef!

nice... do you just buy them at bait shops and rinse all the dirt off, cut them up and feed ???