Feeding Puffers

[Guest]

Okay I relocated my fish and gotten 4 puffers( Its seems a little rushed but they were at the Wal-mart, and I figured they had a better chance at home then there). Im assuming they are wild caught fish and they have been at the walmart at least a week. They are adjusting have seen 3 swimming, chasing thier reflections. Im worried about getting them to accept food tommorow I will try diffrent foods but I've run into a problem no local fish stores carry frozen foods. I have itsy bitsy snails tho. How should I go about feeding them? just dump the food in? place it near them? What if they don't eat . Im panicking already and I've had them for 5 hours. Of course the walmart only gave them flake which they didn't eat but the angels in the tank were rather finless so I know they might of ate something. Any tips anyone?

Heidi

 

[Jamnog]

well as for advice i recomend you do a search on this forum as well as the web for dwarf puffers and esp. look out for any posts by a guy named puffer pack he seems to know more about puffers than is healthy. they should be fine for a day or so while you work out what to feed them. i just hope some one will answer soon it might be better if you put the post in tropical emergencys

 

[Pufferpack]

Hi Heidi...Welcome to the forum...feel free to register (it's free) and enjoy the rest of the forum as well.

Nice to hear that your Puffers seem to be adjusting. For the time being the Puffers should be able to get by nicely on the snails (I just dump a handful into the tank with mine and they go nuts for them) until you can find them other food. If you can't find fresh or frozen Bloodworms/Brineshrimp you may have to raise some yourself (oh joy, more fun), most fish stores sell brineshrimp eggs I think. Other options would be to go to a bait shop and get some grubbs or mealworms, but I don't know how nutritional they would be, you could also try placing water buckets outside for mosquitos to lay eggs in and harvest the larva that way. Small earthworms would work, but with the size of the Dwarfs they would have to be pretty small, and I don't think they would eat them if they were chopped up (mine only consider it food if it squirms or wiggles), and be sure if you're collecting them yourself that they are free of chemicals and pestasides.
One last note of caution, if your puffers are wild caught (which the majority are) watch for internal parasites...if the puffers belly stays shrunken even after eating, or some of the puffers refuse to eat it may be a sign of parasites. If you suspect parasites try soaking the food in a garlic solution as this is supposed to be the best treatment (so I've heard) for internal parasites.

Good luck, look foreward to hearing how the little guys make out.

Don.


...I see you just forgot to log in...well welcome again Coleb5