Vacation Feeding for Dwarf Puffers

eveuh

eveuh

AC Members
Oct 31, 2009
32
0
0
Michigan, USA
I got an adorable little pair of dwarf puffers a few months back, who are getting along splendidly in a 2.5 gallon planted tank. They enjoy a good portion of frozen bloodworms once a day, with the extras gobbled up by the resident ghost shrimp.

My question is, with the holidays coming up, should I worry about feeding while I am away? I don't worry about this as much with my 26 gal tank, since those guys are pretty good at fending for themselves, but with these little guys I worry about leaving them for more than 2-3 days without food, especially since they are so picky and will only eat live/frozen foods.

Since they have to be fed by a person (definitely not gonna go for a plaster block), I am wondering how long I can leave these guys on their own so I can plan my holiday visits accordingly. If anyone has any ingenious ideas for feeding them while I'm away, I'd love to hear those too!
 
I break up frozen blood worms into portions and put them in separate bags. While I'm away, its as easy as can be for anyone to feed them.

I would be concerned leaving them more than two or three days. Usually I'd say they'd probably be fine, but a 2.5 gallon tank is small for 2 DPs. I would expect that the ghost shrimp would be in danger around day 3 or so. There might be agression issues between the puffers too if they get hungry.

How old/big are they?
 
I'm not sure how old they are, they came from my LFS, but they are both about 3/4" long, and kinda beefy guys. I haven't seen any aggression between them at all, even towards the shrimp, they are pretty laid back for DPs. I have left them for a weekend before with no ill-effects, but I did make sure to feed them right before I left and as soon as I got back.

Your comment about the ghost shrimp makes me wonder though....the one that is in there is full grown, but the Petsmart in my area always has tons of the baby ghost shrimp (closer to 1/2" long). Would it be an option to buy a half dozen or so of the teeny ones and put them in the tank for the puffers to snack on if necessary? I imagine that since even the little ghost shrimp are bigger than they are used to (and fast!), that they would be more likely to eat them slowly rather than gorging on them all the first day?
 
Puffers need to munch on live pond snails and the like to keep their beak in good shape.
Are you feeding any snails?
If you don't have any post WTB pond snails in the classifieds and throw a bunch in, they should give a constant food source for a while.
 
dps actually do not need to wear thier beaks down like other puffers, they dont even break shells, they eat snails like a loach.
one far fetched idea that ive never tried personally is to put a box with pond snails in it with a little hole they can crawl out of and let the puffers get them when they come out
 
I know they do love snails, I actually set the tank up a while before I got the puffers and just let the snails breed like crazy for a few months....within two weeks of getting the DPs, all the snails were gone!

Just before I got the puffers I transferred 3 of the biggest snails into my community tank, which houses a yoyo loach. He never ate any of them, and now one is multiplying, so I could always harvest some of the babies out of that tank and put them in the puffer tank. My LFS will also throw in snails for free when I buy plants :)

Maybe I'll try a combo of snails and ghost shrimp while I'm still here, and see if they last long enough for me to use when I go away.
 
I had to leave my dwarf puffer over the weekend once (2 days) and I just put extra snails in her tank. When I got back she had a nice fat belly and some of the snails were still wondering around the tank. I'd put a good bit of snails in their tank but I'm not so sure about the shrimp. A 2.5 for 2 DPs is kinda small and they'd make quite a mess out of the shrimp as well as the snails.
 
DoctaQ said:
dps actually do not need to wear thier beaks down like other puffers, they dont even break shells, they eat snails like a loach.
one far fetched idea that ive never tried personally is to put a box with pond snails in it with a little hole they can crawl out of and let the puffers get them when they come out
Click to expand...

Agreed... DP's don't need snails, but they love 'em! And I love the idea with the box...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom