dwarf puffers still stubborn after 6 days

[Felf]

ok i was talking about this in another forum but my puffers still wont eat anything. the tank also has 3 yoyo loaches so competition for food is a little high but the loaches wont eat the food unless it falls to the bottom. i know puffers like to examine and stalk their food but other people have said that(after having them for awhile) their puffers will eat the food as soon as it's put in the tank. i've tried frozen mysis shrimp, frozen bloodworms, and frozen tubifex worms in addition to the brine shrimp which i fed only twice. i think they were in the lfs for 3 weeks and fed only brine shrimp so it's gonna be hard to break them in.

ANY suggestions? TIA


PS i have snails but they havent bred yet so i'd like to keep them as a last resort for now

 

[Felf]

anyone?

 

[savga]

You might try wiggling some thawed bloodworms with some tweezers. Mine eventually learned to take freeze dried bloodworms from the surface.

 

[pitt420dude]

Felf ive never had that problem but i bet savgas idea would work. Do they eat vegies? They might pick at something if you get an in-tank feeder, plus that is always fun to watch.

 

[UTcolorchangn]

I had the same problem when I first got my dwarf puffers. They were fed live brine shrimp at the LFS, so getting them to take other foods was a challenge.

What I did was feed them some brine shrimp, but I kept putting in frozen bloodworms at the same time. After a few times, one of the DP's started to eat the frozen bloodworms. I was never able to get my second DP to eat frozen bloodworms though. I orded some grindal worms off of the net and started a grindal worm culture. Both of the DP's love the live grindal worms, actually, all of my fish love them! The grindal worms are easy to maintain (you just feed them grain baby cereal) and are a very convenient live food.

Just keep feeding the new food while you feed some brine shrimp, hopefully they'll learn to take some frozen bloodworms.

 

[Felf]

thank you for all the advice everyone

 

[Pufferpunk]

Try live blackworms & tiny snails. I'm afraid with more competitve feeders in the tank, they are going to starve though. One of the many reasons for species only puffertanks.

 

[Felf]

well, i'm pretty sure it'll be fine once i get them to actually eat what i have cause they fly across the tank when i put brine shrimp in. i forgot to buy a tweezer to wiggle the worms today so i'll do that tomorrow. i'll have to order worm cultures online because we cant get jack **** here and i'm 99.9% sure no lfs has any type of worm other than mealworms. know of any good sites where i can get various types of worms?

 

[FishLover14]

I have a Figure Eihgt Puffer species tank and all the fish are diffent 1 fish would eat all day if i let him, 1 fish scavenges the pecies of food the hungry one drops, and 1 tries to steal food from the one that eats, I f i added a loach to the tank at least 1 of them would starve.

JMHO

HTH

I think puffers are alos a lot mroe enjoyable in a species tank.

 

[Felf]

i'm gonna move the yoyos to my 20 eventhough it'll put it right at 20" of fish; if it's too much i'll just take them back to the lfs

 

[Pufferpunk]

Good idea to move those loaches (or any other tank mates competing the puffers for food).

I wouldn't put 20" of fish into a 20g tank, unless the fish are 1" each. You wouldn't keep a 10" oscar in a 10g tank, would you?

 

[Guest]

*shifty eyes*

*slowly* nooooo

 

[Felf]

well right now i have no choice until i figure something out

 

[Pufferpunk]

These smaller puffers can't go very long w/o food. Do something soon please!

 

[Felf]

i bought brine shrimp about a week ago and they're still swimming around in the bucket but that's a last resort. i think i'll throw in 2 or 3 of the smallest snails i have then possibly get even more from the lfs cause they didnt start breeding yet.

 

[Pufferpunk]

Live blackworms will be your best bet for finicky eaters.

 

[Felf]

i'll have to order them online

 

[Pufferpunk]

Try searching the little Ma & Pa LFS. Sometimes they're in not the best of neighborhoods. They might suprise you.

 

[Felf]

i've been to all of them...it's Hawaii...

 

[BASSNMAN]

I have had good luck with pickey eaters with finely chopped earth worms. I guess fresh meat has more smell and taste than dried.