SA Puffer Feeding

[Rory the cat]

Not sure if I am feeding Puff enough. He is a Colomesus Asellus (South American) Puffer.

I am feeding him daily a small piece (about 5mm cube) of frozen food - bloodworm, mosquito larvae, mussel etc). He eats it within about 30 seconds flat.

On a Saturday as a treat he gets a small piece of frozen cooked shell-on king prawn (again about 5mm cube) which it takes him a good hour or so to eat, (he seems to enjoy throwing it around and chasing it in the stream from the filters )

Thing is his belly expands, but is back to normal with a few hours (apart from when he has the prawn & he seems to stay fat & contented all day & night). He is not as fat as many of the pics of colomesus I have seen (he's not skinny though - I have no worries about him having any bugs). He is growing well (1/4 inch since I got him about 4 weeks ago).

I put baby snails in - but he ate them all within a day. I had to remove what was left of the large adult snail as he ate a lot of that too.

Am I giving this little chap enough to eat - or should I be feeding more? I have 2 internal filters in the tank to sort out waste (although he tends to hunt anything he drops & eat it up) so I am not worried about waste matter. Should I be feeding twice daily?

 

[Lithril]

If you think the filters can handle then you can feed him twice a day. Mine get fed at random times and I frequently skip days - They're definately not fussy. Try adding some brine shrimp, snails (essential) and any other frozen foods you can find in the fish shop, SAs do best when they have has varied a diet as possible.

 

[Rory the cat]

Thanks Lithril

Think I will try it for a week & monitor water carefully over that time to see what's going on in there - have just gotten the water perfect so don't want to mess it up. I have been feeding him a bit more over the weekend and he certainly looks plumper, and so far so good with the water.

I am feeding him brine shrimp, cockles, black & white mosquito larvae and bloodworm all frozen from the LFS. Also have bought some fresh shell on prawns that I have chopped up and frozen for him. He eats snails faster than they can breed , but at least the LFS are very accommodating with freebies on that front. I also get him live foods occasionally (when LFS have them) such as brine shrimp or bloodworm. Have tried him on peas & spinach but that's a no no.

I am looking for some ghost shrimp at present that he might want to chow on - how about algae shrimp? (LFS has these by the bucketload) Anything else you could suggest for him?

 

[Lithril]

Havent actually tried mine on live shrimp yet, the LFS never seem to have any fresh water ones in and I'd like to think that if the puffers didn't go for them straight away then they'd live long enough to contribute to the tank for a bit. Put it this way if the puffers don't go for them at least you've got an additional clean up crew