Is this normal after eating?

[bstier]

My green spotted puffer just ate a few snails and shrimp and his belly is real big. This is normal right? I just wanted to make sure. Also, will he overeat if i put, say a ton of snails in there or will he stop eating when he is full.

I captured a minute long video of my puffer swimming around if anyone would like to view that. It is a 15 mb file though so beware!

Video of Puffer <---- The video shows him and his big belly. Right click and "save file as..."

 

[diVer]

Whenever my dwarfs are done eating their stomachs get very big, I would assume this is the same for the GSP. As far as overeating, I'm not sure, but the way my puffers eat I wouldn't be surprised if they did eat until they burst.

 

[bstier]

Does anyone have any kind of schedule that they feed your puffers with? It seems like if I put 100 snails in the tank he would eat all 100, or die trying...

 

[Pufferpack]

Yup, that's normal, some of my little gluttons eat so much that you can actually make out the shapes of individual snails bulging out of their stomachs
You would probably be better off keeping the snails in a seperate tank (or bucket) and feeding a dozen or two a week. Some puffers may indeed try to eat every snail you drop in, while others have been known to eat their fill and then kill any others they find and leave them rotting in the tank.

 

[bstier]

The puffer is in a 20 gallon right now, and he is starting to realize that he is the biggest one in the tank and that hes hungry all the time, so hopefully my snails will multiply. I have a 10 gallon setup and I used to have 3 snails in there yesterday but I fed him one today. I also have a live plant, hopefully the snails will reproduce...

Anyone willing to ship a colony, thatd be great.

 

[Opcn]

My LFS charges 20 cent a pond snail just for the time it takes to grab them. If there tanks are over run they will give me alot more than that but the last three times I have gone in I have hit just after Fred (Fish guy and mothers old coworker) has killed hundreds.

Opcn

 

[bstier]

I went and got about 8 snails for free today when i went to my lfs...hopefully the will start reproducing. If i happen to start getting a bunch, ill be happy to help anyone else start out a little colony of their own.