Puffer Eating Feeder Fish

[GerLick]

i have been feeding them live blood works for the past 4 months but my gf has a tank of oscar cichlids, and so she did not have any room in her tank for feeders, so i said just keep them in my tank filled with the puffers, soi dropped in 4 or so feeders in the tank and the next day they were all gone!?!?

so i thought that the feeders were sucked into my powerful filter, but i checked that also... and no sign of fish.

so now my concern is that will my puffers get sick?

 

[nmonks]

Unless feeder fish are bred at home, and cyprinids [like goldfish and minnows] are completely avoided, there's no "safe" feeder fish. So yes, your pufferfish has been exposed to a health risk. I hope the oscar isn't being fed these feeders -- there really isn't anything more stupid than the use of store-bought feeder goldfish and minnows. When Bob Fenner [noted marine aquarist] looked at lionfish, he found that the single biggest cause of premature mortality was the use of goldfish as feeder fish for these carnivores. Even putting aside the cruelty aspect of feeder fish, there's really no arguments AT ALL in favour of using them where omnivorous cichlids like oscars are concerned. Wild oscars eat "crunchy" food like snails and crayfish, so if you want to simulate a more natural element of their diet then use those to supplement a good quality pellet food.

Whether your puffer will get sick from half a dozen feeders is questionable, but yes, the possibility is there. Because of the ways they're produced and maintained, store-bought feeders almost always come with a "free gift" of internal parasites, and there's always a chance the predator that eats them will pick those parasites up. Nature being the thing it is, it could be months, even years, before you notice anything wrong.

Repeat after me: feeder fish are a dumb idea, feeder fish are a dumb idea...

Cheers, Neale

i have been feeding them live blood works for the past 4 months but my gf has a tank of oscar cichlids, and so she did not have any room in her tank for feeders, so i said just keep them in my tank filled with the puffers, soi dropped in 4 or so feeders in the tank and the next day they were all gone!?!?

so i thought that the feeders were sucked into my powerful filter, but i checked that also... and no sign of fish.

so now my concern is that will my puffers get sick?

 

[GerLick]

Unless feeder fish are bred at home, and cyprinids [like goldfish and minnows] are completely avoided, there's no "safe" feeder fish. So yes, your pufferfish has been exposed to a health risk. I hope the oscar isn't being fed these feeders -- there really isn't anything more stupid than the use of store-bought feeder goldfish and minnows. When Bob Fenner [noted marine aquarist] looked at lionfish, he found that the single biggest cause of premature mortality was the use of goldfish as feeder fish for these carnivores. Even putting aside the cruelty aspect of feeder fish, there's really no arguments AT ALL in favour of using them where omnivorous cichlids like oscars are concerned. Wild oscars eat "crunchy" food like snails and crayfish, so if you want to simulate a more natural element of their diet then use those to supplement a good quality pellet food.

Whether your puffer will get sick from half a dozen feeders is questionable, but yes, the possibility is there. Because of the ways they're produced and maintained, store-bought feeders almost always come with a "free gift" of internal parasites, and there's always a chance the predator that eats them will pick those parasites up. Nature being the thing it is, it could be months, even years, before you notice anything wrong.

Repeat after me: feeder fish are a dumb idea, feeder fish are a dumb idea...

Cheers, Neale

lolz, so what about store bought " live"/frozen blood worms? are they okay? i also talked to a local fish store employee and he said that feeding the gsp " king or regular meal worms" as a treat is okay... is that true? he even showed me an example the gsp's swarmed all over the worm... but it did make the tank a bit cloudy, and i was thinking that wouldn't it raise the ammonia level?

i have been feeding them live blood works for the past 4 months but my gf has a tank of oscar cichlids, and so she did not have any room in her tank for feeders, so i said just keep them in my tank filled with the puffers, soi dropped in 4 or so feeders in the tank and the next day they were all gone!?!?

so i thought that the feeders were sucked into my powerful filter, but i checked that also... and no sign of fish.

so now my concern is that will my puffers get sick?

 

[nmonks]

I'm not a big fan of "lolz", which often seems to suggest laughing off whatever advice has been offered. I prefer a traditional "thank you". The friendliness of this forum is why this is the only forum I visit on a regular basis.

Bloodworms are fine occasionally. There's some suggestion they can carry diseases, but they're nothing like as dangerous as feeder fish.

Again, occasionally giving a puffer mealworms or crickets won't do any harm. They certainly won't carry diseases. But they shouldn't be a staple. A good rule of thumb is to offer fish what they'd eat in the wild, or at least something similar. GSPs eat snails, shrimps, the fins of other fish, and some plant material too. So a mix of snails, seafood, krill, whole lancefish, chopped white fish fillet (preferably tilapia, which is thiaminase-free), algae wafers and cooked peas works well.

The art to feeding predators is [a] to provide as little as possible, while giving them the correct balance of nutrition, as well as [c] ensuring there's no wastage that ends up in the filter.

Cheers, Neale

lolz, so what about store bought " live"/frozen blood worms? are they okay? i also talked to a local fish store employee and he said that feeding the gsp " king or regular meal worms" as a treat is okay... is that true? he even showed me an example the gsp's swarmed all over the worm... but it did make the tank a bit cloudy, and i was thinking that wouldn't it raise the ammonia level?

 

[GerLick]

i apologize it is a bad habit that i have, but Thank you for having the time to reply back even tho i was the rude. you are a great help. thanks again cheers

 

[nmonks]

No harm done. Happy to help!

Cheers, Neale

i apologize it is a bad habit that i have, but Thank you for having the time to reply back even tho i was the rude. you are a great help. thanks again cheers