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My new Puffer's
1/16/2012 3:55:08 PM
I always wanted a dog face puffer unfortunately one would ravage my reef, so I was in the fish store the other day and saw they had 2 dwarf puffers I decided to get them for my mostly unused 10g. No clue on their sexes yet as they're still to young to sex. They're very curious and inquisitive little guys. Trying to get them to take frozen foods but so far all they want is live food.
1/16/2012 4:27:36 PM
What do they eat? Are they poisonous? What happens if you put other fish in with them?
1/16/2012 4:29:18 PM
Cute little guys.
They are semi-saline, correct?
They are semi-saline, correct?
1/16/2012 5:21:22 PM
Originally Posted By gopeterson:
What do they eat? Are they poisonous? What happens if you put other fish in with them?
What do they eat? Are they poisonous? What happens if you put other fish in with them?
They'll only eat live or fresh/frozen foods, live snails are a favorite, along with california blackworms, bloodworms, most waterborne insect larvae, small crustacean's. at their current size I think they'd eat brine shrimp too. Being members of the Tetradon family they probably do have some tetradotoxin a neurotoxin in there stomachs, they can't envenomate though unless they're eaten, or die and decay/get ripped apart by other fish in a tank. They're tricky to keep with other fish they can be very aggressive for their small size, any long finned fish like betta's or angels will have their fins shredded, they usually do ok with Oto catfish and sometimes corydora's. Mine are in a tank with a couple 8 week old guppy and platy babies they've been ignoring them so far but they get more aggressive as they mature.
1/16/2012 5:22:12 PM
Originally Posted By ColonelHurtz:
Cute little guys.
They are semi-saline, correct?
Cute little guys.
They are semi-saline, correct?
No they're one of the few puffers that are total freshwater from birth to death.
1/17/2012 12:25:03 PM
I'd heard they were difficult to raise. Hummm...
1/17/2012 1:15:40 PM
Originally Posted By TwistedSister:
I'd heard they were difficult to raise. Hummm...
I'd heard they were difficult to raise. Hummm...
So far the only problem I've encountered is trying to get them to feed on something other then live food, they'll come over and look at the blood worms but since they're not moving they don't eat them, the live blackworms they see wiggling and they eat them. Since I usually have some small snails around in one of my tanks, and can buy live blackworms local I'm not to concerned if I can't get them to eat the frozen stuff. They can also be messy eaters so I'll probably be doing 50% water changes weekly.
Breeding and raising the real small ones can be challenging since you'd have to hatch brine shrimp or feed them daphnia, they wont eat the baby bites type fish food they sell since puffers wont touch flakes or freezedried foods at all. The real little ones can be cannibalistic too.
1/17/2012 1:57:06 PM
Originally Posted By F4Squid:
I always wanted a dog face puffer unfortunately one would ravage my reef
I always wanted a dog face puffer unfortunately one would ravage my reef
They may, or may not.
But if you have enough current for anything that you can call a "reef", it's too much current for the puffers. They like things a whole lot more mellow than the corals do.
1/17/2012 6:28:41 PM
Originally Posted By GlutealCleft:
They may, or may not.
But if you have enough current for anything that you can call a "reef", it's too much current for the puffers. They like things a whole lot more mellow than the corals do.
Originally Posted By F4Squid:
I always wanted a dog face puffer unfortunately one would ravage my reef
I always wanted a dog face puffer unfortunately one would ravage my reef
They may, or may not.
But if you have enough current for anything that you can call a "reef", it's too much current for the puffers. They like things a whole lot more mellow than the corals do.
That and if I get one that leaves the corals alone he'll still wipe out my clean up crew, other invert's and my smaller fish.
1/17/2012 8:46:01 PM
Which one did you name "Peter"?
1/17/2012 10:35:25 PM
Watch how they act as they become more aquainted with their surroundings. They do get aggressive, and they are biters.
They may be small but they can literally harass much bigger fish to death. Seen it happen.
They may be small but they can literally harass much bigger fish to death. Seen it happen.
1/18/2012 1:01:27 AM
If they end up eating the 2 platy fry and 2 guppies in with them currently I'm ok with that got plenty more of them. I need to pick up 3 or 4 oto's to put in there, some say Kuhli loaches work but I'm not sure thats a good idea since they'd compete for some of the same food they may get nipped.
1/18/2012 1:02:14 AM
Originally Posted By GTwannabe:
Which one did you name "Peter"?
Which one did you name "Peter"?
Haven't named them yet, I suppose I could name one Peter and the other Diddy.
1/18/2012 10:07:10 AM
Originally Posted By F4Squid:
So far the only problem I've encountered is trying to get them to feed on something other then live food, they'll come over and look at the blood worms but since they're not moving they don't eat them, the live blackworms they see wiggling and they eat them. Since I usually have some small snails around in one of my tanks, and can buy live blackworms local I'm not to concerned if I can't get them to eat the frozen stuff. They can also be messy eaters so I'll probably be doing 50% water changes weekly.
Breeding and raising the real small ones can be challenging since you'd have to hatch brine shrimp or feed them daphnia, they wont eat the baby bites type fish food they sell since puffers wont touch flakes or freezedried foods at all. The real little ones can be cannibalistic too.
Originally Posted By TwistedSister:
I'd heard they were difficult to raise. Hummm...
I'd heard they were difficult to raise. Hummm...
So far the only problem I've encountered is trying to get them to feed on something other then live food, they'll come over and look at the blood worms but since they're not moving they don't eat them, the live blackworms they see wiggling and they eat them. Since I usually have some small snails around in one of my tanks, and can buy live blackworms local I'm not to concerned if I can't get them to eat the frozen stuff. They can also be messy eaters so I'll probably be doing 50% water changes weekly.
Breeding and raising the real small ones can be challenging since you'd have to hatch brine shrimp or feed them daphnia, they wont eat the baby bites type fish food they sell since puffers wont touch flakes or freezedried foods at all. The real little ones can be cannibalistic too.
I wonder if they'd eat live mosquito larvae. My fish love those when I can catch them in the warmer months.
1/18/2012 1:57:09 PM
Originally Posted By TwistedSister:
I wonder if they'd eat live mosquito larvae. My fish love those when I can catch them in the warmer months.
Originally Posted By F4Squid:
So far the only problem I've encountered is trying to get them to feed on something other then live food, they'll come over and look at the blood worms but since they're not moving they don't eat them, the live blackworms they see wiggling and they eat them. Since I usually have some small snails around in one of my tanks, and can buy live blackworms local I'm not to concerned if I can't get them to eat the frozen stuff. They can also be messy eaters so I'll probably be doing 50% water changes weekly.
Breeding and raising the real small ones can be challenging since you'd have to hatch brine shrimp or feed them daphnia, they wont eat the baby bites type fish food they sell since puffers wont touch flakes or freezedried foods at all. The real little ones can be cannibalistic too.
Originally Posted By TwistedSister:
I'd heard they were difficult to raise. Hummm...
I'd heard they were difficult to raise. Hummm...
So far the only problem I've encountered is trying to get them to feed on something other then live food, they'll come over and look at the blood worms but since they're not moving they don't eat them, the live blackworms they see wiggling and they eat them. Since I usually have some small snails around in one of my tanks, and can buy live blackworms local I'm not to concerned if I can't get them to eat the frozen stuff. They can also be messy eaters so I'll probably be doing 50% water changes weekly.
Breeding and raising the real small ones can be challenging since you'd have to hatch brine shrimp or feed them daphnia, they wont eat the baby bites type fish food they sell since puffers wont touch flakes or freezedried foods at all. The real little ones can be cannibalistic too.
I wonder if they'd eat live mosquito larvae. My fish love those when I can catch them in the warmer months.
I would think they probably would if they noticed it, they don't spend to much time at the surface, the second larval stage before they become mosquito's would probably work best when they dive in the water. I'm in NY though where they spray for west nile and all that I don't know if I'd want to trust stuff collected from local waters in my tanks.
1/18/2012 2:39:30 PM
Originally Posted By F4Squid:
I would think they probably would if they noticed it, they don't spend to much time at the surface, the second larval stage before they become mosquito's would probably work best when they dive in the water. I'm in NY though where they spray for west nile and all that I don't know if I'd want to trust stuff collected from local waters in my tanks.
Originally Posted By TwistedSister:
I wonder if they'd eat live mosquito larvae. My fish love those when I can catch them in the warmer months.
Originally Posted By F4Squid:
So far the only problem I've encountered is trying to get them to feed on something other then live food, they'll come over and look at the blood worms but since they're not moving they don't eat them, the live blackworms they see wiggling and they eat them. Since I usually have some small snails around in one of my tanks, and can buy live blackworms local I'm not to concerned if I can't get them to eat the frozen stuff. They can also be messy eaters so I'll probably be doing 50% water changes weekly.
Breeding and raising the real small ones can be challenging since you'd have to hatch brine shrimp or feed them daphnia, they wont eat the baby bites type fish food they sell since puffers wont touch flakes or freezedried foods at all. The real little ones can be cannibalistic too.
Originally Posted By TwistedSister:
I'd heard they were difficult to raise. Hummm...
I'd heard they were difficult to raise. Hummm...
So far the only problem I've encountered is trying to get them to feed on something other then live food, they'll come over and look at the blood worms but since they're not moving they don't eat them, the live blackworms they see wiggling and they eat them. Since I usually have some small snails around in one of my tanks, and can buy live blackworms local I'm not to concerned if I can't get them to eat the frozen stuff. They can also be messy eaters so I'll probably be doing 50% water changes weekly.
Breeding and raising the real small ones can be challenging since you'd have to hatch brine shrimp or feed them daphnia, they wont eat the baby bites type fish food they sell since puffers wont touch flakes or freezedried foods at all. The real little ones can be cannibalistic too.
I wonder if they'd eat live mosquito larvae. My fish love those when I can catch them in the warmer months.
I would think they probably would if they noticed it, they don't spend to much time at the surface, the second larval stage before they become mosquito's would probably work best when they dive in the water. I'm in NY though where they spray for west nile and all that I don't know if I'd want to trust stuff collected from local waters in my tanks.
Tee hee...needless to say I'm in a rural area and have access to private ponds. We get the bloodsuckers bad enough here that you can get them in something as small as a bucket if you leave it out long enough.
My blue rams go absolutely NUTS when I put larvae in the tank.
1/20/2012 8:07:37 PM
Try and find Hikari's Massivore. It comes in two different sizes as well as a sinking or floating formula.
It has such a strong smell, most fish can't ignore it.
Be warned though, even one tiny pellet left in the tank uneaten will smell like a rotting corpse.
It has such a strong smell, most fish can't ignore it.
Be warned though, even one tiny pellet left in the tank uneaten will smell like a rotting corpse.
