dwarf puffer

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elmj

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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
 
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.
 
Was their tank cycled before adding the puffers? What are the water parameters (ammonia, nitrites, nitrates)?
 
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!
 
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.
 
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

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).
 
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