Dwarf Puffer not eating Frozen Bloodworms

[tropicdragon]

Hello!
So I am a relatively new DP owner, and this is a common issue I’ve seen with keeping dwarf puffers. But anyways, I have a male and female in a 10 gallon tank. It was one of my older tanks (I had moved the animals originally there to a newer larger tank) that had been infested with pond snails so I was hoping the DP would be fed that way, but unfortunately, they decimated the snail population within a couple of days. Afterwards I started feeding them frozen bloodworms and the male has taken to following me when he sees me approaching the tank so that I can feed him. However, the female is a bit shyer and one time she did try taking a worm from my tweezers but she spit it back out immediately and swam away. It’s been about three days or more and I am getting concerned because I haven’t seen her eating. I try to leave some worms around her little territory but she seems to ignore them. Does anyone have a suggestion of what I should do ? I am wondering if anyone has successfully grown a culture of some small animal in their DP tanks or are there any live food recommendations or anyway to get a puffer to eat frozen foods?
I have attached a photo of her below.

 

[SlickNick]

Hello!
So I am a relatively new DP owner, and this is a common issue I’ve seen with keeping dwarf puffers. But anyways, I have a male and female in a 10 gallon tank. It was one of my older tanks (I had moved the animals originally there to a newer larger tank) that had been infested with pond snails so I was hoping the DP would be fed that way, but unfortunately, they decimated the snail population within a couple of days. Afterwards I started feeding them frozen bloodworms and the male has taken to following me when he sees me approaching the tank so that I can feed him. However, the female is a bit shyer and one time she did try taking a worm from my tweezers but she spit it back out immediately and swam away. It’s been about three days or more and I am getting concerned because I haven’t seen her eating. I try to leave some worms around her little territory but she seems to ignore them. Does anyone have a suggestion of what I should do ? I am wondering if anyone has successfully grown a culture of some small animal in their DP tanks or are there any live food recommendations or anyway to get a puffer to eat frozen foods?
I have attached a photo of her below.

Hello I am also new to dwarf puffers I’ve had my 3 for about a month. I feed mainly frozen brine shrimp as 2 of mine have taken to that better then the bloodworms so maybe give that a shot. My 3rd puffer also never comes out to feed with the other two but I always see him hunting in the tank for little critters on the plants and hardscape. I was nervous about him not coming out to eat with the others at first but it’s been a month now and he is still his happy little self!

 

[Killies]

In my experience dwarf puffers never ate frozen bloodworms. I think you would just have to buy bladder snails from Aquabid or your local fish store.

 

[tropicdragon]

Yeah so far she doesn’t look emaciated so I hope that’s a good sign. I also have some frozen brine shrimp which I haven’t tried yet so I could give that a shot. You said you see them hunting little critters every now and then. Out of curiosity, do you happen to know what they are ? (Like snails etc.) I am wondering if I should try buying snails like MTS or something else like daphnia. And see if I could get a culture of those going. Since in my experience the bladder snails get eaten very quickly.

 

[kallililly1973]

All our pea puffer "Chubby" eats is ramshorns and frozen bloodworms.

 

[SlickNick]

Yeah so far she doesn’t look emaciated so I hope that’s a good sign. I also have some frozen brine shrimp which I haven’t tried yet so I could give that a shot. You said you see them hunting little critters every now and then. Out of curiosity, do you happen to know what they are ? (Like snails etc.) I am wondering if I should try buying snails like MTS or something else like daphnia. And see if I could get a culture of those going. Since in my experience the bladder snails get eaten very quickly.

The little critters I see them hunting are tiny little white detritus worms and then some tiny little bugs not exactly sure what they are I’d like to get a magnifying glass to get a closer look!

 

[aquachris]

Mine won't eat blood worms either. I've had success though so far with live adult brine shrimp and one of them will eat frozen mussel (extra from my gsp if I thaw too much for him). Otherwise they spend their time hunting baby snails.

 

[SlickNick]

Mine won't eat blood worms either. I've had success though so far with live adult brine shrimp and one of them will eat frozen mussel (extra from my gsp if I thaw too much for him). Otherwise they spend their time hunting baby snails.

I was thinking of trying some live adult brine shrimp today! Hoping my lfs has some in when they open up!

I ended up getting some live brine shrimp today they seemed to like them! I only got a picture of one of them going after them! I was to busy watching with my eyes lol

 

[aquachris]

I ended up getting some live brine shrimp today they seemed to like them! I only got a picture of one of them going after them! I was to busy watching with my eyes lol

HAHA. Yeah its so fun watching. I have a few blurry pics of them munching on them.

 

[DoraCory]

Apart from frozen bloodworms, my lot will only eat live food. Thankfully I have 2 other tanks that I can harvest snails from, but finding live daphnia or anything else has been a task.

 

[hilux]

In my experience dwarf puffers never ate frozen bloodworms.

My 6 DPs are so mad about frozen bloodworms they'll even try to swim into the plastic container I feed them from and snatch some before the others.
On the other hand they downright ignore any other frozen food like brine shrimp or black mosquito larvae.