Frozen food for dwarf puffers

[Raechal]

Okay so my sister's 10 gallon has 2 DPs in it, which has now become my responsibilty. I will probably go to petsmart tomorrow and try to pick them up some different foods as they won't touch anything I give them. Would frozen brine shrimp do good? What else could I pick up for them as far as food goes? I would get live brine shrimp, but they don't sell them at Petsmart.

Also, my sister's hood has a built-in light on it and I noticed it REALLY brings the temp up when left on for about 10 hours a day. Is there a safe way I can just keep it on for like 6-8 hours a day? There are no live plants, just fake ones. It has been up tp 85 F before because she accidentally left it on all day and all night.

What is a good temp for DP's? It is at about 78F right now.

 

[jflowers]

Frozen brine shrimp and bloodworm would be good. mine also love mysis shrimp which is really a marine food but can't see any harm in using it for puffers.

Does the temp rise if the lights are only on for 6 hours? if not then that will be fine if you have no live plants. Can't think of a way to stop the temp rising apart from fitting a fan or raising the lights. 78f is fine BTW.

Jon

 

[SirMinion]

In my experiance it is very rare for dwarf puffers to take dried food.

Frozen bloodworm should be taken with enthusiam and they may also eat daphnia and brine shrimp.

If there is an airstone on the tank, place to food on it so the food moves around, this will kick-start the fish's hunting instinct andthey will start eating.

If no air stone then put the food in the outflow from the filter.

The most eagerly accepted food of course is live which has the added advantage of not pouluting the water if they don't eat it all. It will just live in the tank untill the fish are hungry again!

Don't forget that dwarf puffers love snails too! See if your local fish store will give you some free snail hatchlings from their tanks, usually they're happy to get rid of them!

 

[Fish00]

Mine wil only eat blood worms & kribnisis fins.

 

[Javentule]

Definately - frozen food. Like everyone mentioned, blood worms (the look like they're eatin' s'ghetti!), tubifex, brine shrimp, and daphnia are all good choices.

Petsmart DOES sell brine shrimp that you can hatch yourself and feed. It's in the same aisle as the fish food. They come with either a vial, or a little hatchery (depending on how much you want to spend). You might consider that if your puffers are REALLY picky, but I think they'll do just fine with the frozen.

 

[SirMinion]

Mine wil only eat blood worms & kribnisis fins.

Which is why Dwarf puffers should not be kept with other fish.

 

[Raechal]

Bought some frozen bloodworms and mysis shrimp (sp?) I put some blood worms in there and as soon as I did they came out of hiding and looked around. There is a fake grass-type plant in the tank under the filter so that the plant moves around so it looks like the bloodworms are kind of moving. Hopefully they will find them and eat them.

 

[Fish00]

That was kind of a joke.
There are a pair of kribnisis in there but only for a couple of months then there going in with my other more peaceful (notice the word less)

 

[Raechal]

Sorry to say that one of the DP's died lastnight. He was swimming around just fine yesterday and when I woke up this morning to turn on their light, he was laying on the bottom dead. No signs of illness or injury. All water params perfect. I did a water change that day because I didn't want the bloodworms to rot in the water as they didn't eat most of them that fell to the bottom of the tank so I sucked them up and did like a 25% water change. The ammonia is 0, the nitrites are 0 and the nitrates are 5. Temp is fine and I added dechlor when I re-added the water.

 

[Fish00]

they could both be male & kill each other.

 

[Raechal]

they could both be male & kill each other.

But he had no injuries or anything at all.