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i had three dwarf puffers
one of then recently died after refusing to eat for a week and a half :(
the other two are not eating either. i tried live bloodworms, frozen blood worms and brine shrimps, ghsot shrimps but they still don;t eat besides chasing the ghost shrimp around and staring at the blood worms! can anyone tell me whats' wrong or what else they will eat? i'm trying out snails for them tml
and i am administering internal parasite treatment currently
OrionGirl
06-04-2003, 10:08 AM
How long have you had them? Were they feeding previously? If so, on what?
Live snails are the best foods for them, and the must have some crunchies in their diet to prevent their beaks from growing shut. If you did not provide them with frequent shells to crunch, it is likely that this is what has happened. With larger puffs, trimming is an option, but I don't know if it will work with dwarves.
I'll move this over to Brackish--I know the dwarves are fresh, but all the other puffer-types hang out in BW and will happily offer advice.
Pufferpunk
06-04-2003, 3:45 PM
Was their tank cycled before adding the puffers? What are the water parameters (ammonia, nitrites, nitrates)?
Tim Bo
06-04-2003, 4:06 PM
Pufferpunk has a good question.
I know from my own sad experience way back when I got my first dwarf puffers that I did not succeed in maintaining their beaks(/or is it teeth?) by feeding snails. Unfortunately, they perished though I have learned from the experience and told a few LFS' in my area about this necessity, though i doubt they have passed the info on to customers interested in these little bug-eyed E.T.'s....
Pufferpunk and tim bo: the tank was cycled before i put the puffers in. its an "old" tank as i used to have another puffer and shrimps in it before the puffer died. but the day before the other puffer died my mom bought this two new puffer in an effort to cheer me up.
OrionGirl : i had them for ...three days so far perhaps... i don't know what they fed on previously and am getting my mom down to the lfs where she bought it to ask the petshop owner and also i'm getting my friend to fish out all the snails in his tank for me :) hope that it will eat! its my last resort!
OrionGirl
06-05-2003, 10:03 AM
Okay, so it's not like they've quit eating. The LFS usually carry juveniles, and juveniles don't take to prepared foods well at all. Snails, live brine, and live blood worms are your best bet to get them to eat. Mine wouldn't touch anything but live brine and snails for the first 6 months or so. The bad part is, the young have very little fat reserve, so they can't go for very long without eating. Get some snails today or tomorrow.
Oh, and I wouldn't put much stock in what the LFS tells you. If they were much good, they would have informed you of this prior to purchase.
PufferNewbie
06-06-2003, 2:45 AM
of all the fishs i bought from a LFS, they had never informed me what kind of food they feed their puffers/tetras.. grr :mad:
i got some snails for them today but only one of them seems to be responding by pecking at the snails. how would i know when the snail is actually eaten? in fact how would you tell a dead snail from a live one?
i got these snails from my friend who lives pretty far away from me thus it would be impossible for me to go and get more snails from him. so how do you rear these snails so i can feed them to my puffer? how long do they take to produce new snails? i'm fed all but maybe three and left this three in a container filled with water. can they survive and breed without an airpump?
also live bloodworms are known to pass disease on to the fishes. is it still wise to get them?
so many questions! really sorry and hope you all can hep me! :)
Hi elmj,
Can't help you with all your q's i'm afraid, but there's an excellent article about breeding them by RTR:
RTR's article on snail breeding (http://www.aaquaria.com/aquasource/snailsforpuffers.shtml)
Telling a dead snail from a live one I guess just watch it for a bit. There should be a little movement. If the puffers ignore it then its probably dead.
I've been breeding some for about three weeks and have yet to see any definite sign of hatchings yet (there are loads of eggs though). I've got 3 ramshorns in a small tank (cost £4.99) with an airpump / stone in it. Its on a windowsill (algae central) and they are fine (still laying eggs and eating everything).
Not sure how long its going to take for mine to grow to an suitable size so can't help you there.
HTH
Ade
Throw some lettuce in with the snails. They love to eat that stuff. They will breed soon enough, though you are hard pressed to see the babies once hatched but soon you will be over run. An ice cream container will suffice for a tank and placing it in the window for heat and algea growth is a good thing as they seem to like to eat algea. The more food the more they breed (but you don't want foul water).
OrionGirl
06-06-2003, 8:54 AM
Blood worms are fine if you clean them, and keep them in the fridge to slow their metabolism. I kept them in a small tupperware with a loose fitting lid, and would strain out the worms and put in new water about every other day. If they smell, pitch em. Keeping the water clean, and cool, they will keep for about two weeks. Most problems arise from not rinsing them before feeding, or from feeding dead ones. Avoid those pitfalls, and they are a decent supplement/treat for most fish.
TKOS: so if i put three snails in a ice cream container with no pump and some plants and they will still reproduce? may i know how long they will take to reproduce?
change some of the water every other day (with dechlorinated tap water) and try to remove their waste (although not easy if there are baby snails amongst it) and you should be ok.
You won't get as many snails as you could from 3 adults tho...
Another thing to bear in mind is as RTR says in his article 'you are what your prey eats' and this extends to your preys overall health. if the snails are kept in poor conditions they will not be as nutritous for the puffers.
Just my opinion.
Ade
SBA: so what would be nutritious food to feed them so they would be nutritious food for my puffers? would flakes and pellets help? i have one adult one and three baby snails in my container now. they were given by a friend :)
btw my puffers have not tried eating the ghost shrimps in my tank!! they just...chase it ard... :confused: any reason why?
out of date flake food is fine with some added veg (cucumber, lettuce, courgette or zuchini if you prefer).
They will eat a lot of different foods, but I think keeping the water reasonably clean is a good idea.
Don't know about the ghost shrimp, but not all puffers eat everything that others do. Even within the same species they will differ. Maybe they are not sure about the shrimp yet, but they will probably soon change that if they are chasing it around.
My setup for snails is a 1 gallon plastic container (used to be for my Betta) witha plastic plant (looks good) a little gravel and some lettuce. I don't change the water very often, and actually I normally just top it off. I used to try and keep things much cleaner but they didn't reproduce as fast. If there is sufficient food they should lay eggs pretty quick, though it might take a couple of weeks until the snails are big enough to be food. So get started as soon as possible. I use Ram's Horn snails and pong snails and both can form a colony pretty quick.
You may need another source while yours are growing up.
OrionGirl
06-06-2003, 10:57 AM
Ghost shrimp are actually a bit on the large size for dwarf puffers. I kept ghost in with mine for a clean up crew, and currently my pack shares the tank with a herd of amanos. Never seen them even peck at the amanos, though they will readily eat any shrimp that molts if there aren't enough hiding spaces for the shrimp.
thanks to everyone who helped! my two puffers are finally eating. *phew*
OrionGirl : thanks for your advise on the live blood worms cause that's all they are currently eating:D