Difficulty feeding new DPs

[platycrazy19]

so a week ago I got two dwarf puffer fish. I took extra percusion to ensure they were healthy after already loosing a different one to internal parasites. I've been feeding them frozen bloodworms. The first day they gobbled them up. But since them I have been feeding them every other day and they seem to have little interest in the bloodworms. They kind of pick at them but other than that that is it. They are starting to look a little thinner (one more than the other) and i'm starting to get concerned. I have medication to treat internal parasites and could soak the bloodworms in it to treat them in case they are sick but considering i'm having difficulty getting them to eat anyways that doesn't seem like it would really help. of course i could just put the medication in the water, but will that actually help?

-as a side note they do think it's fun to scare off the RCS that attempt to eat the frozen bloodworms.

 

[Terrance]

Snails? Then move onto feeding raw shrimp. When they start taking raw shrimp, then soak it in IP meds.

Does your tank meet all the minimum requirement for 2 DP? Not meeting requirements causes changes in behavior and eating habits of your DPs.

 

[platycrazy19]

I have a feeder snail in there and they take no interest in that. what do you mean by raw shrimp though?

 

[KaylNeko]

Probably raw cocktail shrimp like you would buy for yourself to eat at the grocery store. What size snail do you have in there? It may be too big for them if they're youngsters (or they're not used to them being food and haven't figured it out yet). Blackworms are supposed to work too, or brine shrimp (live or frozen). Is there anyway you can find out what they were eating at the place where you got them? If it was something different or they were used to live food, that may have something to do with it.

 

[platycrazy19]

yeah I considered that, I could probably call the store and see what they had been feeding them. I have limited options when it comes to fish stores, so live food are hard to find. I'm not really sure where I could by blackworms (I've never seen them). as for raw cocktail shrimp I haven't heard that before but I would be willing to try it. I am still curious about the idea of just treating the water for internal parasites because I am concerned that one of them has them.

 

[KaylNeko]

For blackworms, try a bait shop. ^_^

 

[Convict2161]

I just went threw this with my wife, she has a dwarf puffer. The LFS just gave us a handful of those tiny tiny snails. He stuck his little face right in there and that was it! Dinner had been served. Other then that it's been frozen bloodworms, Brine shrimp and black worms.

 

[platycrazy19]

Yeah I can't understand it the only thing I haven't tried it black worms and brine shrimp. I'm not positive if they have internal parasites, they do look a little thin, but I thought it might be from not eating. But I think I will go ahead and treat for it anyways because I know that they a very prone to internal parasites. As for food I think I will try and hunt down a bait shop and look for live blackworms

 

[Terrance]

Your DPs could be enjoying the live food from the baby RCS. Its difficult to train puffers to go from live food to dead food. If you see them hunting and pecking around the tank, then they are definitely going after the live food.

 

[platycrazy19]

i've heard that soaking the bloodworms in garlic can help in getting dwarf puffers to eat frozen food. Does anyone have any experience with this?

 

[lee1983]

was thinking of setting a second tank up for a pea puffer you guys just helped me make a wise decsion il give it a miss

 

[platycrazy19]

So I called the place that I got them from and found out they were feeding them a variety of live food including blackworms, brine shrimp and feeder snails. This could explain why i'm having difficulty feeding them frozen food. Unfortunately I won't be able to get out there to buy live food for another week, but i'm going to take a trip to petsmart tomorrow and try to feed them frozen brine shrimp. I would think that if they got hungry enough instinct would take over and they would be willing to eat frozen food but I don't know.

 

[KaylNeko]

With a lot of animals accustomed to one type of food, it's not necessarily that they're spoiled or not hungry enough for instinct to take over. They may just not have figured out that it's food so think it's another decoration *shrug* No one said they were the best cogitaters around *lol* You may have better luck with brine shrimp, even frozen, since it'll look familiar. Good luck!

^_^

 

[platycrazy19]

Thanks I'm afraid I still might loose one it seems he has internal parasites and isn't doing to well but I am treating with tetra parasite guard. Hopefully he turns around but it won't help if I can't get food into their system.

 

[Hholly]

It's easy to grow your own snails. Pond snails multiply like crazy.

 

[platycrazy19]

yeah I have tried feeder snails and they don't even notice them

 

[Terrance]

i've heard that soaking the bloodworms in garlic can help in getting dwarf puffers to eat frozen food. Does anyone have any experience with this?

Yes try it. Take out the skinny one and give it a isolated environment (use a bucket with heater, airstone, and a cave for hiding).

Soak the food in garlic like you said. Feed garlic bloodworms for the next 2-3 days. If he/she accepts, then move onto medicated bloodworms everyday for 7 days. Change 25-50% of the water every day or every other day and try to feed other types of non-medicated food too, so you may end up feeding twice per day (preferably morning and night). By the time you are done medicating, your DP should be trained to eat all kinds of food. This is a lot harder to do if you keep both DP together in a tank full of RCS. Lots of distraction in that tank.

 

[platycrazy19]

What I ended up doing was moving all my RCS into my community tank so that I could treat the entire tank for internal parasites. then I took the frozen bloodworms and thawed them in some tank water and add some garlic powder (I wasn't sure what to use). I let them soak for a couple of minutes and added some of the bloodworms to the tank to see if they would take them. Even the one that I believe to still be healthy didn't so a lot of interest in the bloodworms, picked at them but thats it. The one I believe is sick wouldn't even come out of the corner.

 

[Terrance]

Treating the water is not as effective as medicating the food source. I would still split them temporarily and train each of them to eat food.

 

[platycrazy19]

how can I train them to eat food?