Leopard puffer....please help

[Brandon.O]

Hey guys i bought i leopard puffer fish today i brought him home and set him up in his new home, hes doing just fine but i have a question about feeding him, ive never owned a puffer before so im kinda cluless the guy at the pet store gave me these worms that come in little cubes and told me to press them against the aquarium walls and the fish will eat it, sounded good to me so i bought the food for him/ her (by the way is there any way you can tell the sex?) and got home to try it out and whaddaya know, the little cubes dont stick to the walls, they stay on for like 3 seconds before they get soggy and float to the top and dissenagrate......what should i do ?

Do puffers eat feeder fish ??

[Shelby]

Is it a dwarf puffer? I had one of these before. I fed mine frozen (thaw it of course) bloodworms. Brine shrimp are good too. Most will refuse pellets and flakes. I wouldn't give feeder fish.. puffers are known for fin-nipping, not eating fish.

Juveniles are hard to sex, but adult males usually have less spots and a dark line on their belly.

[jknudson]

Hey guys i bought i leopard puffer fish today i brought him home and set him up in his new home, hes doing just fine but i have a question about feeding him, ive never owned a puffer before so im kinda cluless the guy at the pet store gave me these worms that come in little cubes and told me to press them against the aquarium walls and the fish will eat it, sounded good to me so i bought the food for him/ her (by the way is there any way you can tell the sex?) and got home to try it out and whaddaya know, the little cubes dont stick to the walls, they stay on for like 3 seconds before they get soggy and float to the top and dissenagrate......what should i do ?

Do puffers eat feeder fish ??

I bet the worms he gave you are tubifex worms...they work great for a lot of other fish, but mainly just a pain for puffers.

Like already stated brine shrimp and bloodworms are great foods. You can also feed mysis shrimp, beefheart, and when it gets a bit larger, krill. Another important factor is with keeping the "beak" in shape. Every so often go to your pet store and ask for nuisance snails, normally most places will offer them for free. The puffers will eat the snail shell and all, the shell acts as a great tooth conditioner and if you don't do that then it could cause problems later on.

Hope that helps some.

Jason

[Brandon.O]

Wow, so you have to take out the shrimp/worms everyday and thaw them ? thats kinda a chore...but i guess its not that bad.....so do you guys know if petco or petsmart usually carry them ? ive never checked before....

[jknudson]

Yeah, most PetCo or Petsmart chains will have a freezer for frozen foods, if not the freeze dried will work just as well, and you wouldn't have to thaw anything out.

[sweety314]

Yeah, the tubifex worms were sort of the pits so we went to the frozen (and sometimes live shrimp and worms). For our angelfish we did both shrimp and bloodworms. It was basically rinsing the food under cold water and then dropping it in a little triangle shaped cup w/holes that lets them pick the worms out w/o them squiggling/drifting to the bottom really fast. Occas. you'd have to pick out the worms that have died. Thing is, they both needed to be refridgerated between feedings when they were live instead of frozen.


Any place that sells aquarium fish should have the supplies and food you need.

[4theSNAKElady]

I have five of these little guys......i love em"! they're like little "underwater puppies".....They have never been known to my knowledge to breed in captivity, so i am not sure about telling the differeces between the sexes. i feed mine krill, as well as tiny freshwater snails(crunch) and ghost shrimp. Mine are all about 2-3 inches long..if yours is smaller, you might want to break the krill into smaller pieces or give frozen brine shrimp..just swish a frozen cube around in a little water so the shrimp separate, and pour in. One important fact that the store probably did NOT tell you was that these guys really aren't freshwater fish. theynare brackish water fish which means they do need some salt in their water to stay healthy. Leopard puffers kept without salt are super prone to fungus as well as other things. I have had mine for five years and they live in my saltwater tank. It is a common occurrence with these guys in the pet store...passing them off as freshwater fish...which they are not. Also, if you have them with other fish, watch out! These guys are notorious fin nippers, and smaller fish like neons, guppies, and danios, well, just might become lunch.

[Brandon.O]

Wow, thanks for all of this awesome information, i knew a little bit about puffers but not a whole lot, i have read in many places that they are "brackish"fish but i had no idea what it meant, thankyou for explaining, when you say salt do you mean aquarium salt or like "instant ocean" salt ?


So when i put the little cube in i just let it sit there until he/she eats it or do i break it up ?

Ghost shrimp are pretty easy to come by here, maybe ill pick some up, im going to the petstore that sells salt water fish in a little bit, im almost positive that they have some kind of worm.

Thanks again.

[4theSNAKElady]

I would probably use the instant ocean salt, as it dissolves quicker and is cleaner as well.You only need to buy a small box, unless you puffer is in a huge tank! They love ghost shrimp!After your puffer gets used to you, it will recognize you as "the food bringer" and will beg whenever you approach the tank. After awhile, those worms will be greedily gobbled up without sinking to the bottom!

[Brandon.O]

Hes just a little guy right now so i wont have to use much salt, i was asking becuase i already have aquarium salt and it seems pretty easy to use, there isnt any way i could just use that ? or is instant ocean way better ?

This morning...since i couldent get the cubes to stick to the wall and had nothing else to feed him, i offered him a cube that i held under the water with some chopsticks and he nibbbled at it alot but made more of a mess than he got to eat, so i took it out of there and threw it to my feroucious female betta.....she devoured it.

When i go to the store today, ill look for some ghost shrimp and and check the prices on the instant ocean.