Puffer feeding driving me nuts

P

prime311

New member
How do you add garlic and what kind of garlic to your fish food to get them to go for it? I'm running out of ideas now of what to get my Puffer to eat. A couple weeks its been now and he still only eats live ghost shrimp and whole frozen krill. I tried both fresh Crab, clams, and mussel from my grocery store. I tried whole frozen silversides, cubed mysis shrimp, cubed krill, and whole brine shrimp. The silversides, fresh crab, and frozen krill cubes he'll nibble at but he wont eat it and he doesn't even attempt to eat anything smaller then 3 square centimeters or so. I also tried larger live snails, but he won't mess with them. Even a small turbo snail I've seen him stick it in his mouth but the snail is still alive and now he doesn't even try to eat him. Maybe I could try a bunch of small snails that come in packs of 50 or so off ebay and just let him scavenge? I dunno, but for a fish that isn't supposed to be a picky he sure is getting me to build up a huge collection of food in my freezer.
 
You can dice some up & smash it to get the juice out & then soak the food in the whole thing & tank water overnight.

Jave you tried live worms?
 
I haven't tried worms yet. There isn't any bait shops around here so I'm not really sure where I can find a good supply. I have some frozen bloodworms I give my freshwater fish so I might try those. I'm guessing they'll probly be too small for him to go after though.

It's really ok to soak the silversides and fresh crab and stuff overnight? I was afraid it might spoil or something.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12740975#post12740975 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by prime311
It's really ok to soak the silversides and fresh crab and stuff overnight? I was afraid it might spoil or something.
Click to expand...
Put it in the fridge... ;)
 
I recently traded my bullying pinktail trigger to my LFS for a long-term porc puffer. It's very healthy and seemed fine in the tank, but wouldn't eat for nearly a week. I called the LFS and asked what they fed, and they told me freeze dried krill. I got some Hikari f-d krill the other day, and the porc has scarfed it down. Keep trying different foods, you never know what works.

Some people think soaking food in Selcon helps appetite...
 
You can pick up some garlic extreme or similar at your lfs or just crush up a fresh clove so the juice drips on the cubes.
 
Krill is like puffer crack. It should only be fed as a treat.
Click to expand...

thank you for letting me know that, Pufferpunk. this LFS almost exclusively fed this porc freeze dried krill since February, when they got him in! I've actually not fed it to any fish for at least 10 years, until they told me that is what he eats. I needed to get him eating, but will work on getting him to accept other foods in place of krill.

since prime has a puffer that's not eating, maybe krill is the way to go to get him started.

prime, how's it going with the puffer feeding?
 
How is it going Prime? My young puffer will only eat mysis at the time. I do not feed krill after pufferpunk posted that either. I will only feed krill on occassion, or if he stops eating. I am having a real hard time getting him to eat mussels, clams, snails, or other inverts. any ideas on how to intice him to eat those food items for his teeth?
 
Well I got him to eat some fresh crab that I'd bought at the store and frozen. It certainly wasn't his favorite food since he didn't eat a lot, but he definitely ate some. Meanwhile I just keep plugging at it and feed him ghost shrimp if I'm worried he's not eating enough. He goes right after the ghost shrimp, sometimes they get away but i see him foraging in the rock they hide under and i never see them again so it looks like he gets them eventually. I know he'll eat frozen krill, but only whole krill not the cubes. I've been avoiding feeding him that though cuz of PP's advice. Haven't gotten a chance to try the garlic yet, but I'll be doing that this week to see if I can entice him to eat some frozen silversides I cut up and I'm going to see if I can find some worms in the places PP suggested. I did try frozen blood worms that I feed my fw fish with sometimes, but he wasn't interested.
 
Well ideally i want him eating like 5-6 different foods so I can keep his diet varied. If I can alternate between crab, shrimp, snails, worms, and silversides every week then it should be a great diet.
 
you may try getting some of the cubed marine foods like in the saltwater multipack and cutting off chunks to feed. I use about 15 different foods for my puffer.
 
I tried a few of those, he nibbles a chunk, then spits it out, then ignores any of the rest. Ideally I'd like him to take the cubes eventually cause its the easiest for me to store.
 
Well my understanding is that they can be fed a mixed diet of hard shelled and non shelled food and shouldn't have any problems with their teeth getting too long as long as the shlled food is part of the diet. I wasn't trying to suggest I'd only feed cubes, it would just be easier if that was one of the things he'd eat :)
 
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