The Puffer Forum

My GSP has untill now lived off brine shrimp, blood worms, krill, and snails. I decided to give him a better diet, so I ordered a dozen clams, which should arrive tomorrow.

I was at my mom's pet store and decided to get a small female fiddler crab. So I got home and just... threw it in the tank. (I don't have a quarintine tank yet, I'll have one once I get my puffer set up in his 30 gallon.) My puffer was imediately very intrested and charged it. He nipped at it a little, and of course, the crab fought back and scurried away. Now the crab is sitting in the middle of the tank, moving around rocks and eating bits of food. And my puffer... is hiding.... rawr. Every once in a while he'll swim up to the crab and the crab will put his arms up like "no! Shoo" and my puffer will cower away. :/ The crab really isn't that bid, less than an inch. My puffer is about 3", so it is a size difference, but it was the smallest crab I could find.

What should I do? Should I kill the crab and throw it back in the tank (eep) or should I just let it sit in there and hope my puffer finally eats it?

Patience... the crab will make a wrong move and have it's back turned, then get the beak.

Yep, just wait. Puffers also tend to do some nighttime hunting, and one of these mornings the crab probably won't be there. But sometimes it takes them a few weeks to get up the courage to actually attack.

Personally, I'd remove it as I think its too big for the puffer to eat. That's a lot of food. Imagine the size of the puffer's stomach, then imagine the crab inside the puffer's stomach.

Yeah, I was kind of hoping he'd eat the darn thing while I was around so I could limit how much he ate.

I think I have a lazy fish. When I first bought him I tried feeding him ghost shrimp, he'd see them, charge toward them, and when they ran he'd get mad and give up. They were in there for like 2 weeks and they got really massive so I ended up just donating them to a petstore near me.

Can I just stick it in the freezer and make it die O.o I don't really have anywhere to put the crab if I remove it and the "LFS" is an hour away.
stupid crab. I wish he'd just die already.

I leave them in. They make a great maid, till eaten. I had one last 2 weeks in my miurus tank. Then, one day, all I found was a claw. If there's 1 large claw, you can remove, if it doesn't make you feel too bad. Sometimes, for a "chicken" puff, I just buy the females--they have 2 small claws. Personally, I like the crab to have a fighting chance. Really can't do damage to the puffer, it's skin is too tough.

it's a female crab, so no big claws. I'm just having problems with it trying to escape :/ I've already found it in my filter. I could ductape it closed, but I don't have any tape and everything is closed untill tomorrow. Anything else I could do to keep it in the tank?

Lower the water level.

well... He ate all the crab's legs -_- so at least I don't have to worry about him crawling out. His belly looked pretty full so I took the crab out and threw it in the freezer, I'll thaw it out and let him eat the rest later.

Good idea.

not a bad idea, i like giving my guy the fiddler crabs too, I will admit it is a litte frustrating when all you want to do is see him eat the thing and it seems that the fiddler just roams free in your tank. HOWEVER in the event that you do catch him putting the hurt on the fiddler is is pretty amazing thing to watch, and to add on to someone elses point, the fiddlers really do clean up the tank so anything else your puffer makes a mess of whiles he is eating the fiddler is more than happy to clean it up. When you do get to see the puffer v. fiddler battle be prepared it is pretty wild. I am not sure if they all do this but my guy is pretty smart, he starts off picking off legs one by one and goes from one side of the crab to the other just kind of making it so the crab can't flee the scene, then all of the sudden when the crab is just sort of defeated my guy will go in for the kill usually meaning he will either attack from the back flip the fiddler over and go to work or charge in like a bull and just roll the fiddler over and then clean house.......what a great fish.

Is the crab still in the freezer? Maybe you could give him a thawed out leg for a snack here and there?

I gave him some more crab 2 days ago I think it was, there was still some left, but I forgot to put it back in the freezer and after it sat out half a day in the warm room I decided to just throw it out. He should be getting clams tomorrow. (hopefully... if UPS doesn't lose them AGAIN)