Question on feeding Dogfaces

[adlewis79]

My husband bought a Dogface Puffer a few months ago and he quickly became one of my favorites in the tank because of his personality and he always seems to be begging for attention when we go near the tank.

I've been feeding him mostly large krill and squid as that is what he seems to be wanting, while turning his nose up at other meaty foods i've offered him. He's a pig and eats great no problems and has never touched any of our hermits or snails(that I know of). I once read where you need to feed Dogfaces 'hard' food so they'd grind down their teeth and they won't get too large and hurt the Dogface while eating and such. Its been awhile since I read this (and can't refind the article) and it was very vague on what to feed them other than 'hard foods'. So my question is: Is this nessesary? And what foods are ideal to feed them to grind down their teeth?

Also I witnessed something I thought was totally awesome yesterday, and I'm still in awww today when thinking back on it. Our Cleaner Shrimp cleans everyone in the tank except I had never seen him clean the Dogface before, he always seems scared of the Dogface. Well yesterday I watched the Dogface go over to the Cleaner Shrimp and open his mouth and the Cleaner Shrimp cleaned the Dogfaces teeth!! Was pretty cool to watch and something I never expected to happen.

 

[AdidaKev]

Wow! That's amazing that the puffer let the shrimp clean him unharmed! I would've liked to have seen that.

Yes, it is important for the puffer to grind its teeth down. If the teeth get too big and pointy, it will make it very diffucult for the puffer to eat. Try giving him some scallops with the shell and see if he'll bite down on those.

 

[leebca]

Puffers, like most carnivores must have 'whole' foods. Avoid too many meals of flesh. More is explained about that here:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=785228

Some poeple take plaster of paris and mix it up thick and put in whole marine foods. They make several small blocks of it at a time. After it sets up, you put blocks of it into the tank and the Puffer will grind into it and help grind its teeth. However, this usually still isn't enough in the long run. Plaster of paris isn't 'hard enough.'

Every so often, when the teeth get out of shape, the aquarist can put the fish to sleep, grind down its teeth with a jewler's grinding tool, revive the fish and it's all set to go!

 

[SaltyMember]

I bought a bag of little neck clams at the grocery store and froze them. I feed my dogface 1 clam a week and it does a good job at keeping his teeth filed down. I just crack the shell and drop it in the tank. The puffer does the work from there.

 

[XtrmCHoPZ]

TRy cockle in the shell they love it