Colomesus fussy eater!!!

[Rory the cat]

My Colomesus (that's him on my avatar ) is being a very naughty fellow of late. He's become a very fussy eater.

Now I know that this can happen with puffs, so ever since I have had him (7 months) I've been very careful to vary the little lad's diet. He generally gets a cycle of bloodworm, whiteworm, black mosquito larvae, krill, shell on crevettes, chopped cockle and ramshorn snails. I usually feed him once a day for 2 days and then 1 day with no food. To begin with he wouldn't eat anything but bloodworm, but slowly I got hime eating all the other foods.

About 4 weeks ago he just simply stopped eating anything apart from the bloodworm, whiteworm and krill. He will gorge himself on worms, and Krill but the rest he ignores. It isn't helping his little beak growth either! I do feed him the worms & krill in a frozen chunk that he has to gnaw at - but even this isn't helping his teeth much.

He appears to be in excellent health, lovely white belly, his water perams are excellent, he has a 16 gal tank all to himself.

I have tried giving him nothing but the refused food - but after one week of not eating I cracked and gave him whiteworm - which he wolfed down. He is hungry as he comes up to his feeding spot for food whenever I go near the tank, but he just sniffs at anything other than the 3 foods mentioned above and then swims off with his nose in the air (IYSWIM).

Any ideas on how I can break this naughty habit -or indeed of any other foods I can use that would be good for his beak?

 

[LadyMinion]

Hmmm... your little guy seems determined to get what he wants.

One week is quite a while to refuse food, but if he is really truly starving he will eat whatever you give him. I guess I can only suggest to try fasting him again perhaps for longer.

As for the beak problem, is he given any snails? These are great for keeping it short. Otherwise you may have to trim it yourself - collomesus are known for overgrowing beaks.

 

[Pufferpack]

I find my Colomesus's prefer frozen brine or mysis shrimp....will pass up bloodworm to eat the shrimp....once the shrimp is gone they start in on the bloodworm.

 

[appleblossom]

Hi Rory the Cat, I see you live in the UK, in some of my lfs you can buy frozen food 'quintets' with 4 different types off food in, my puffers also like to eat mussel aswell as cockle, artemia and mysis shrimp as well as brine shrimp. Maybe you could just try buying some frozen foods you have never tried before and give them a go?

I have also never heard of a puffer refusing snails.. do any of your lfs have an infestation they would be willing to let you remove for them? my puffer tends to prefer these

shaped snails to the little flat spiral ones....have you tried both??

 

[Curtiss]

I must have the must un-finicky, most mellow Colomesus in the world. Mine even eats flakes, although his favorite is frozen brine shrimp. Blood worms are his second favorite. He's also got a great temperment. I moved him to my 30 gallon community temporarily when I decided to redo the 15 gallon I had him in. He behaved so well I left him in the 30 and he's been doing well in there for the last 6 months. I expected as he got older, I would have to move him back to the 15 (just him and a very aggressive blue paradise I took out of my 30) but that hasn't happened yet. Maybe he just likes the bigger tank better? Added benefit was I had bought some live plants for the 30 and got some snails as a result. He had my tank cleaned up in less than 2 weeks...and now I actually get my lfs to throw in their unwanted snails when I buy my frozen food. Its been working out great!

My original problem was with those fatter snails in appleblossom's post, but, he eats the long spiral ones too.

Here's a pic of the little fella...

http/www.users.qwest.net/~cws6239394035/SAPuffer.JPG

-Curtiss

 

[Puffer_freak]

Wow, nice pic. I have heard that if your Collemesus doesn't keep his beak down, you will have to find someone (or you can do this yourself) to trim the puffers beak. There was an interesting article on here before on how someone did theirs. You will have to search.

 

[Curtiss]

I saw that thread. It involved clove oil and cuticle scissors. Thus far, the guy's "buck teeth" are fine. No problem eating. I suspect the snails he eats helps. I also saw someone mention a "feeding rock" and thought, hey, that's a good idea so I've been dropping his food onto one of my high up ceramic decorations.

The whole idea of trimming his teeth scares me a bit, but, I'm confident I can accomplish it if need be.

-Curtiss