Dwarf Puffers!

[Jaeroo]

Alright guys I have a question about the diet of Dwarf Puffers. I know they are supposed to get a variety of live or frozen foods. I was planning to grow a grindal worm culture as opposed to white worms (because they are smaller? And I have had trouble in the past with their food being too large to eat. I also have no idea which one is more nutritious. If anyone knows please tell me!) and I will try and get some pond snails from my lfs and put them in a separate tank so they will breed (hopefully). I plan to feed the grindals dog or cat food and the snails whatever they need to thrive

My question is, would grindal worms and pond snails alone be sufficient food for the little puffs? Or are blackworms and blood worms also essential to keep these guys healthy? I have frozen blood worms but they are huge and I don't think I would be able to feed them any until they are adults.

Thanks for reading!

P.S. (This exact same thread is in the "Getting Started" section as well, I know. It was supposed to be here. I tried deleting it but I couldn't figure out how so I just re-posted)

 

[lindenthaler.9]

Variety is best with puffers, but snails are the most important part of their diet so I wouldn't say that the blackworms and blood worms are necessary for them. And blood worms have very little nutritional value anyways.

I don't have any experience with grindal worms so maybe someone else can answer that part.

 

[serena00]

I agree on variety... But snails are important and they love them. I would keep MTS in another tank and let them breed like crazy and pick a few out every couple days for the puffer. That's what I did.


36g semi-aggressive
20g community
10g betta, nano fish, shrimp
5.5g betta

 

[Nils]

Hey! I feed my puffer live blackworms and he goes nuts. I wouldn't say it's an essential. All you really need are some kind of worm (bloodworms are the worst because they are hard to digest for fish and can be very fatty) and maybe through in a couple snails here and there. I wouldn't go with bladder or pond snails because of heir high fat content, but rather with MTS or Ramshorn snails. The blackwork culture is SOOOOOO easy. All you need is a jar, brown coffee filter paper(not white because the bleach in it will kill them!) and an air stone. Oh yea and 3-4 inches of water Then all you do is take the water fro an established tank, put it in and dump the worms. Piece of cake. Oh and feed every 3-4 days, I use Aqueon Flake Food. They have bred and I now have 3 times the amount I had 1 month ago! If you have any questions let me know!

 

[serena00]

I agree on variety... But snails are important and they love them. I would keep MTS in another tank and let them breed like crazy and pick a few out every couple days for the puffer. That's what I did.


36g semi-aggressive
20g community
10g betta, nano fish, shrimp
5.5g betta

 

[Jaeroo]

Hey! I feed my puffer live blackworms and he goes nuts. I wouldn't say it's an essential. All you really need are some kind of worm (bloodworms are the worst because they are hard to digest for fish and can be very fatty) and maybe through in a couple snails here and there. I wouldn't go with bladder or pond snails because of heir high fat content, but rather with MTS or Ramshorn snails. The blackwork culture is SOOOOOO easy. All you need is a jar, brown coffee filter paper(not white because the bleach in it will kill them!) and an air stone. Oh yea and 3-4 inches of water Then all you do is take the water fro an established tank, put it in and dump the worms. Piece of cake. Oh and feed every 3-4 days, I use Aqueon Flake Food. They have bred and I now have 3 times the amount I had 1 month ago! If you have any questions let me know!

So, blackworms are what you give them as their main diet? And do you know if blackworms are better compared to grindals? I just don't want to end up having three different cultures of worms growing in my house and I will probably do MTS but aren't they harder to breed?

 

[Jaeroo]

One, more thing, have any of you had any success keeping puffers with shrimp? I have heard 75/25 on whether they can go together, and I know it's a big no-no, but I thought. The puffers are super tiny and young when bought, so if i have shrimp in there before that, the puffers don't even think of them as food because of their size? I will probably try it, if it doesn't work out, I'll just pop them in my 20.

 

[lindenthaler.9]

I've had ghost shrimp in mine but personally I wouldn't risk the more expensive shrimp. I've heard of people trying it, but I've never heard how it went.

 

[Gillie]

Grindal worms would likely be the best worm, they are easier to culture and require less maintenance than blackworms. I feed mine mixed grain baby cereal with spirulina and astaxanthin powders to get max nutrients out of them.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[Jaeroo]

Thanks for the replies guys! I would be happy to hear others opinions too!