Would It Be Cruel....

[Phoenixbaby]

To buy shrimps and feed them to my puffers?

 

[nmonks]

Expensive rather than cruel. And perhaps not even necessary. In terms of live food, I find my puffers enjoy woodlice, pond snails and earthworms -- all free and easy to get from my (pesticide-free) garden.

Cheers, Neale

To buy shrimps and feed them to my puffers?

 

[Phoenixbaby]

oh wow!!! how awesome

im just setting up a tank for pest snails, all snails, to breed them for food for my puffers

i mean just as an occasional snack, would they like shrimp?

 

[Bonsai_girl]

Yep, most puffers like shrimp. I breed my own cherries and ghosts for this purpose

 

[Phoenixbaby]

i dont have the time to set up another tank for this purpose, which sucks

thats why im trying to get hold of pest snails to breed too

 

[DarkEntity]

I just asked my local garden centre for ramshorn snails.

 

[Bonsai_girl]

I keep ghosts in their own tank, and the cherries with ramshorn snails

 

[Phoenixbaby]

yeah but what im saying is, id need a heater and all that jazz, which i have yes, but i just want something minimal, like the snails, small little tank, loadsa plants in, flakes too, n leave em to it

 

[zephi]

I feed my puffer earthworms from the garden (loves them), live shrimps & school prawns, white bread, crabs and a few other small crustaceans. If I don't have any live food, I will feed them frozen prawns from the bait shops.
If you live near any water source(ie a river) you can catch some live food for them. I catch all my shrimps and crabs there. I don't feed mine snails though, since the snails from the river have really tough shells. Instead I feed mine small crabs I catch around my local river (crushed), to keep their beaks from overgrowing.

 

[zephi]

yeah but what im saying is, id need a heater and all that jazz, which i have yes, but i just want something minimal, like the snails, small little tank, loadsa plants in, flakes too, n leave em to it

You could always try to breed some shrimps in your puffer tank, of course they will get eaten etc.

In my tank I have 4 shrimps which my puffer can never catch, and always gives up fast. They are actually breeding inside that tank, but I think the babies get eaten or sucked up by the filter too fast. They've been in that tank with the puffer together for over 3 months.

Occasionally I add new ones to the tank, and they get eaten fast.

 

[Phoenixbaby]

Bread?? seriously?

 

[zephi]

Well for my species , yes.
Since out in the wild they are scavengers. And will take practically anything you give them. (by the way, the species I got is commonly known as toadfish) and is almost like a pest in our River system where I live.
Oh, add to the list, raw chicken meat and any shellfish you can find is okay too. As long as your species is brackish, I see no problems with feeding them foods which they may find out in the wild.

But, best not to give those unnatural foods they won't find in the wild to them, too often. Only during times when you have nothing else to give them.

 

[BecciMac1987]

My GSPs have slugs from the garden, snails picked from the inside of my daughters wendy house(!), frozen bloodworms, cockles etc. But once a fortnight I buy 6 feeder shrimp for £1.95 from my LFS and drop them in, my puffers go wild and have lovely fat bellies for days!

 

[DarkEntity]

Bread?? seriously?

My puffers eat vegetables...you find lovely little round holes in them lol

 

[Phoenixbaby]

well i now have a whole host of ideas now, thanks for all ur input guys