Help- How Do I Feed A D'puffer

[esjlong]

Evening All,


Just after some feeding advice for my 2 tiny DP's. They are in a 190 litre tank with other fish(and have decided to avoid each other)One puffer hides (still have no idea where- only comes out for food) and the other is more sociable and stays at the front of the tank

I have frozen bloodworm and frozen Cichlid Mix- I usually defrost a full BW tab and put this in the tank. BTW have no idea what’s in the Cichlid Mix (my Cichlids do not seem to fussed over it)

Maybe a bit of a stupid question, but how long can you store defrosted BW for?? and how much should I feed my little guys and how frequently?

I have read some of the other posts about over feeding??

Lastly if you can recommend any other food they like (minus snails- hate this so do not want to add this to my tank)

Many thanks

Emma

 

[Curalingua]

Hi
Mine love fresh daphnia, glass worm, brine shrimp and small blood worm. I feed them fresh food generally as they like the chase. It is most likely easier though as they are in a smaller tank on their own.
Its good to feed them baby snails too to keep their beaks trimmed. I put pond snail eggs in their tank but never see any live snails they eat them up as soon as they hatch.

At least yours come out for feeding, thats good.
Fiona

 

[lilacamy931]

When they are youngsters best to get them growing quickly and feeding regularly. Generally I would say feed every day except on the 7th, it does depend though as they are in the community tank and will need to keep a close eye on whether they are getting fed or not and if the other fish are bullying them (or vice versa!).

As to defrosted BW, a couple of days in the fridge, you can generally tell as it starts to whiff a fair bit and goes a different colour from the true blood red.

As to over feeding, they should have nicely rounded bellies without any distortion.

As with all puffs, best to give them crunchy foods for their beaks, and only thing would be baby snails, hopefully someone else can help with this side of things.

Best of luck with them, they are fantastic little blimps

 

[synodontismultipunctatus]

only thing would be baby snails

i use live baby meal worms, they have a hard shell and the dps love eating those

 

[talisker]

i read on the puffer forum not to feed them meal worms as they have trouble digesting the skin.

 

[spike123]

no mealworms as for the reason stated above and definatly snails you really souldnt get over run with these critters as the dps will wipe the snails out within a few hours of adding them to the aquarium malaysian trupet snails are best.
spike

 

[Curalingua]

no mealworms as for the reason stated above and definatly snails you really souldnt get over run with these critters as the dps will wipe the snails out within a few hours of adding them to the aquarium malaysian trupet snails are best.
spike

Can they manage MTS, I thought their shells were too hard....or are they okay when tiny. I have a problem with MTS in my community tank and am frightened to add baby MTS to my DP tank in case they cant manage their shells and i get problem in there too.

Fiona

 

[spike123]

no mealworms as for the reason stated above and definatly snails you really souldnt get over run with these critters as the dps will wipe the snails out within a few hours of adding them to the aquarium malaysian trupet snails are best.
spike

Can they manage MTS, I thought their shells were too hard....or are they okay when tiny. I have a problem with MTS in my community tank and am frightened to add baby MTS to my DP tank in case they cant manage their shells and i get problem in there too.

Fiona

hiya fiona dps will suck the mts from there shells they love the litle blighters and it gives them something to shase and stalk.

ill feed mine bloodworm and then i add about ten mts every week.
its a good way to stop the mts from overpopulating other tanks.
spike

 

[Curalingua]

hiya fiona dps will suck the mts from there shells they love the litle blighters and it gives them something to shase and stalk.

ill feed mine bloodworm and then i add about ten mts every week.
its a good way to stop the mts from overpopulating other tanks.
spike
[/quote]

Thanks.
Thats great news. I don't think I will ever be rid of MTS in my community tank. They just keep on coming. Cant imagine why anyone would want to add them intentionally to a tank. Each to their own i suppose.

Fiona