How do I know if my dwarf puffers are eating?

[JenNewbie]

When I set up my large tank, I decided to use my remaining small tank for dwarf puffers. I already had dehydrated bloodworms and the tank is mildly infested with snails, so I figured they had food for a few weeks at least. I know that live or frozen food is preferable, but the puffers barely acknowledge it when I drop in dehydrated bloodworms and I have not seen any snail carcasses yet. I realized this morning that I'm going to have to drop some flake food in there to feed the snails, or they'll starve! Anyway, these guys are supposed to be constantly hungry, but the times I've watched them, they don't seem interested in food. Help! I don't want them to starve.

Also, is there an algae eater that is safe to live w/ puffers? This acrylic tank grows algae like nobody's business. I have a fake rock cave in the tank which the puffers have ignored, so an algae eater might have somewhere to hide from them. The LFS guy said SAEs might be okay, since they swim quickly if they get harrassed.

 

[Menagerie]

Have you tried hatching brine shrimp? It is relatively easy.

 

[Chikadee]

I keep my dwarfs with otos and a pleco with no problems at all. My dwarfs also had problems figuring out that snails were food at first, so I had to squish them in the water, which led to a feeding frenzy! mine also ignore freeze-dried anything, but they love frozen food.

 

[Guest]

Agreed, smash a snail, they'll get the idea pretty quickly after that. They should eat any type of snail except malaysian trumpet snails, shells too hard. My puffs eat snails exclusively, won't eat any dried or frozen foods I've tried.

I have 2 dwarf puffers in with a Siamese Algae Eater, they don't bother each other. I saw one very small possible fin nip one time in 6 month of these guys together, and I'm not even positive that's what happened.

 

[savga]

Mine eat freeze dried bloodworms (Hikari brand) all the time. Maybe with all the snails in the tank they are just not hungry? If I drop a snail in my puffer tank, nothing hits the bottom but shell. 8O

 

[krap101]

is it that hard to tell if their hungry?? err i guess if youve never seen them full then watever.. mine eat some of the snails that come with my plants every now and then and love brine shrimp. i know thats not the healthiest diet but they usuaally dont eat blood worms. when did u get them. maybe their still adapting.