New to Puffers

[Fry Lady]

Hi all,

I for the first time in 25 yrs of fish keeping, I decided to get Puffers. I got 2 very nice Green spotted puffers and have them set up in a 5 1/2 gallon tank that is heavily aerated and filtered with a Whisper 5-15 gallon power filter that cycles about 90 gallons per hour. I used some seasoned aragonite from my 55 African tank and mixed in some Instant Ocean for the salinity.

Upon adding my 2 cuties, Mickey & Thompson within minutes they were eating some live brine shrimp. They also ate for their 2nd feeding later on some New Life Spectrum tiny pellets.

I guess I should say I am quite happy that they are so settled in so fast. I will be moving them to a 20 gallon so they can move around more.

I have a few questions............how often to do water changes? And what is the best diet? I have read that you can give them ghost shrimp that they love to pick them apart. Also, snails.................where do you get them that small/

Would a diet of small pelleted food such as NLS and freeze dried krill or plankton suffice with brine shrimp?

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[smooth_bourbon]

HI. A 20 gallon won't be big enough for two GSPs. I always heard at least 55 gallon but I recently heard from Puffer Punk that she found even that to be too small. If you can get your GSP's to eat pellets then be very very happy. They however will still need hard foods, such as snails, shrimp, and eventually even clams and mullusks tho to keep their beaks from overgrowing.

I got my snails from the LFS in their planted tank just common pond snails and actually setup a planted five gallon tank to bread them in (cause I got tired of looking odd begging for snails ) GSP's also love Ghost Shrimp. Make sure you provide some entertainment for them, move the decorations in the tank around, and give them stuff to hunt. They seem to really love checking out new stuff. Good luck with your little guys. And post some pics if you get a chance.

 

[Fry Lady]

Hey Thanks alot for the info. I found Pufferpunks write up via Google. That's where I read about the ghost shrimp. I may go get a shrimp later today to see what happens.

Well for now, they are in a tank that is bigger than what they were in at the store. Seems the store won't keep them in tanks with others they were kept in small cubicals that you'd see salt water fish housed in. They appear to be doing well so far.

I'd like to add more brackish fish if I could find some Scats and Mono's I'll add them to a larger tank. But for now, the 2 Puffers are doing well.

At what size do they start to eat the snails? And how do they eat them? Do they crush the shells?

I would like to give them the BEST care as I do for everyone else.

 

[smooth_bourbon]

I got my first one very small and put it in a tank with a huge snail infestation and it cleaned them all out the first night. They are real hunters. They crush the snails and make a huge mess of them. As for getting one Shrimp, if you can find a LFS that sells them cheap, as food definatley get more then one.

It is so much fun to watch two hunt together. Make sure your tank is well covered tho for the shrimp will jump out to get away from the puffers.

 

[Fry Lady]

Yes, I can get shrimp in an abundance here they are in my LFS where I got my puffers.

My tank is very secure and covered so that will not be a problem!

I will tell you my problem I have here with tanks and it's inhabitants. I have babies! I've had 3 rounds of babies get spit in my 55............so moving my 20 gal guys into there isn't the fix.

I have to get atleast a 30 gallon to move some of my mbuna babies and all. That frees up the 20 for the puffers eventually. But for now, they seem happy in their little place. They are just about an inch in size each.

Trust me I have alot of babies

 

[Little Fish]

Upon adding my 2 cuties, Mickey & Thompson within minutes they were eating some live brine shrimp. They also ate for their 2nd feeding later on some New Life Spectrum tiny pellets.

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Hi, how are you? I joined this forum for only about a week and I already got so many good suggestions and question answered. You will be happy here.

Wow, your Green Spotted would eat pellets? A mail order place said dwarf puffers will eat New Life Spectrum pellets, which I bought. However, my dwarf puffers won't even taste it. The Ghost Shrimps that I put into the tanks and supposed to be dwarf puffer food enjoy the pellets though. It seems like even within the same species of puffers some will eat certain type of food and some won't. Each of them also has a different personality. I think that is what make them so interesting. Two of my Figure 8s will eat freeze-dried blood worms but the other one would just spit them back out. I tricked him (or her) into eating the freeze-dried ones by mixing them up with frozen ones. Now that I know your GSPs will eat New Life Spectrum pellets, I will try it with my F8s. I want my puffers to learn to eat at least one kind of dry food so I can use a timer feeder when I'm away.

 

[Fry Lady]

Funny they are I fed them a few minutes after putting them in their new home and they ate the brine shrimp.

And yes, they ate the pellets. The NLS pellets I have a small ones, they are the same size I feed my baby Africans with.

Good food for sure, colors come out big time with that food.

I am heading out to get one ghost shrimp to see what happens, also I will get some freeze dried krill or plankton (worst case if they won't eat it my Africans will)

I will see if they will catch me a few tiny snails from their plant tank as well. B)

All I can tell you is mix up the foods, til you find one that they like. My Africans only eat Spirulina flake and NLS pellets. They are beautiful in color ( Peacocks) and very healthy.

 

[Little Fish]

I got my snails from the LFS in their planted tank just common pond snails and actually setup a planted five gallon tank to bread them in (cause I got tired of looking odd begging for snails )

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Yes, I learned my lesson of keeping a continuous snail supply from sources other than fish stores too. I have been turned down so many times by fish store employees declined to sell or give me snails. Quite a while ago, I asked to buy some plants from Petsmart (with a good number of pond snails and eggs attached) but the employee would not sell them to me once he knew what I really wanted were the snails. Now I keep a 2.5G snail breeder tank and found a co-worker that has a snail infested tank that he claimed has at least 400 pond snails in it at any time. I don't doubt him after he gave me a container of more than 50 pond snails of different sizes and offer to bring more everyday. He said he has only 2 fishes in the tank and has no idea why so many snails appear in the tank.

 

[Fry Lady]

Well I got some snails from my LFS no questions asked and she tossed in some ghost shrimp. There was one tank with snails all over a sponge filter. Does it matter what types of snails they are? I mean shell wise?

Well one ghost shrimp down! I can't believe these guys they seem to eat anything I give to them.

 

[Little Fish]

Well I got some snails from my LFS no questions asked and she tossed in some ghost shrimp. There was one tank with snails all over a sponge filter. Does it matter what types of snails they are? I mean shell wise?

Well one ghost shrimp down! I can't believe these guys they seem to eat anything I give to them.

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From previous readings of posts and articles, it seems like pond snails (football shape) are the most agreeable types. They are bite size, fast reproducing, and easy to find. Malaysian Trumpets' (long trumpet shape) shell are too hard and some puffer owners warned that it might chip the puffer's teeth. Some people said Ramshorns (round curled up shell) is ok too. So far, I have only fed pond snails to my puffers. I read a post a while ago, from Pufferpunk I think, that ideally you should only feed snails to puffers the size of their eyes. This rule has been working well for me. My F8s suck the whole snail inside their mouth and chew for about 10 seconds before swallowing, including the broken shell. It looks like they are getting a good workout of their teeth.

 

[Fry Lady]

Yeah, they ate all the snails I put in there maybe 5 of them. They are very tiny snails, easy to eat they barely look like snails but there are. I have the extra snails in a container for now.

As for the ghost shrimp I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that thing go down the hatch LOL

I think ghost shrimp every few weeks will be fine.

 

[andywg]

With larger puffers, such as GSPs, you don't have to limit to snails. Shrimps, or mussles and cockles and the like can all be used to allow the puffer to wear down the teeth, even crabs and such like (there are some great videos of Martha vs a crab...).

 

[smooth_bourbon]

Mine loved shell on shrimp, clams and muscles(tho I had to crack them open for them), freeze dried plankton as snacks. I also fed frozen plankton, and krill to the one, and frozen green entree to the pickier one.

Do you have hiding places for them?