Dwarf puffer feeding observations

I now believe my DP is fully comfortable with her tank and me. She does the begging at the glass when I come into the room and explores every part of the tank, even spots I didn't think she'd fit into. There are less floating plants than before but she stills come out in the front where all the light is. When it comes to feeding she is set in her ways. Other than the occasional pond snail or mts that she sucks out of their shell, she does pick off a rcs once in awhile. It's actually quite funny when I catch her staring down a shrimp. She will actually stop cause I'm there. I'm going to guess it's because she thinks I'm feeding her. She needs to learn her nightly feeding schedule better. It feels like these little guys are ALWAYS hungry!

Question 1: I know their bellies need to be nice and round (shows they are healthy and eating right?) but when is it too big? I found outside my staple diet of frozen bloodworms which she loves, she also loves live brine shrimp too. I tried this the other day and she went nuts. I think I put too many in though and after they were all eaten you could tell her stomach was larger than normal. Not huge, but a slight extra buldge. It was fine shortly after. I hear most fish will eat till they pop, but DPs are pigs!

Question 2: I am trying to use tongs with my bloodworms to get the puffer to come to me instead of just dropping them in the bottom cause then I feel she will miss some. Luckily she has been eating food off the substrate now, so not as finicky. They are the 8" stainless steel tongs sold in the reptile section of Petco. At first she seemed nervous of the tongs, which is understandable. Maybe cause they are so big, or maybe cause they shine/reflect light (maybe look like a bigger fish). She will now come out and look at the food in them but not approach it. I've tried keeping it still and moving it. Any suggestions, or just should I just keep doing what I'm doing till she feels comfortable. I feed the bloodworms every other day. So I'll try tonight.

Any other observations you guys have found? I know a few of us here just got some new DPs and are learning a lot.

 

If you want something to use other than tongs I suggest a clear pipette. Much less intimidating than big ol' tongs, and by squeezing and releasing the bulb you should be able to create more than enough movement to get your puffer interested.

If for some reason you can't get a pipette or need something longer a coral feeder is a decent alternative.

 

thanks for the ideas. I'll see what I can find. As for now though, she came right up to the tongs after a few minutes. Didn't grab any food, just sort of stared at it for a bit.

I also forgot to mention that when she explores she seems to pick at random things. Maybe she sees something that I don't. This is sometimes random parts of plants, the aquarium glass, wood, rocks, etc.

 

has anyone used glassworms for food? I have some leftover ones that I want to try out tomorrow.

 

glassworms should be fine for the puffer, my nile is still small and spoiled, he will take bloodworms right from my fingers. not hesitant at all comes right to he top and waits for me to feed him, he is really cool

 

You guys ever notice them hesitating to attack the snail when you're watching?

Cause when I walk away mine goes for it.

 

lol, mine hesitates going after shrimp if I get close to the glass. Like she knows she is doing something wrong. My favorite is when they are eating and they'll swallow a lot, but then spit 3/4 of it back out, and then ignore it. If I had a bigger puffer I would love to hand feed mine. I just feed mine such a small amount that I can barely have anything hanging out from my fingers. Maybe I can lay my hand out flat?

Ray, how do you like your Figure 8? I just got a 20G long and always wanted to try brackish. Now I'm on a puffer kick so this MAY happen. Plus I see you have yours with gobies. I was thinking of trying a figure 8 with 3-4 bumblee bee gobies.

 

I forgot my glassworms floated. And my puffer goes everywhere BUT to the surface, so those didn't work. The new thing is that she stalks the back and occassionally looks at me, sometimes coming out front, sometimes not. For whatever reason, food does not always entice her right away. I did get her to go right after snails though. I want to find a ramshorn to see if she can handle a larger snail. She is also getting better about picking at leftovers on the substrate. She is even living happily with my pygmy cories and rcs. I have a good one!

 

So I think my girl went a little too crazy with some blackworms last night. Just wondering how fat too fat looks on a pea puffer?! Sorry, didn't think of getting a picture at the moment and don't really want to do it again. You can sort of tell when she's full by her stomach, but this time it was a significantly large bump, like a baby bump. Is this normal or did she just pig out too much? She is fine now by the way. Goofy and chubby as ever.

 

Yeah, they'll pig out!

 

I had some leftover amano shrimp and ended up putting one in my 10G, with my puffer. Yes, she'll pick at the few rcs in there once in awhile, but I think she's scared of the giant shrimp. The amano is about 2x the size of her. If she is picking away at worms or snails, the amano can be right next to her picking in the substrate. Is this weird?

I also had a horned nerite in there. Haven't seen it in awhile but also have not found a shell. Think it's hiding well, or got picked off by my DP?

 

what do ya know, my nerite has been in my java fern. still alive.

I just got some ramshorns (thanks to chippygal) to breed and use for food. I felt like my pond snails were great but so small that I'd use multiple ones and thought I'd end up going through them too quickly, who knows though. Do you think a bunch of ramshorns will affect my bioload that much in my 5.5G? However, I'm worried to give my puffer some of the larger ones. Would a full grown ramshorn be too much for a full grown pea puffer? I'm sure if I asked my puffer she'd say no, but I don't want to have her stomach explode.

 

Has anyone had any luck feeding their DPs frozen mysis shrimp or daphnia?

 

In my experience with DP they will probably be able to eat a young ramshorn an adult one may be a bit on the large size, but a larger sized adult DP may be able to, although they seem to prefer smaller sized snails. I used a clear pipette in the past and had great results with it. Although most of the time I just poured some bloodworms in any left overs the corys would eat. I tried frozen brine shrimp and they took to them nothing like the bloodworms though. Mine never touched any shrimp, they were pretty well fed though. As long as the DP doesn't look lumpy or overly stretched out they should be fine. They will look nice and round though. You should be fine adding some ramshorn to the 5.5 gallon if the only inhabitant is a DP.

 

The problem with feeding lg snails to a dp is waste. They slup the snail they can reach out of the shell, without crushing it to get the last bit. Leaving bits of snail rotting in ur tank. I woulsnt put my food culture in the tank, dp will overfeed

 

Just some more trials with frozen foods:

*frozen daphnia - "Ha!", says the dwarf puffer. "this is too small and of no interest to me silly". So much for that.

*frozen brine shrimp w/spirulina - live brine shrimp lasts about 3 seconds in my tank, this stuff...much longer. I figured I'd try it with spirulina for some diversity in their diet. Yes I know they're carnivores. They just picked at them and ate a few, but the majority of it went to my pygmy cories, who loved them!