green spotted puffer

green spotted puffer that wont eat anything besides snails. i cant get him to eat frozen food, freeze dried or flakes/ pellets. i am trying to find a variety of foods that he will eat. was thinking about hatching shrimp since i cant get them at my lfs. what else can i try to feed him?

 

bloodworms for sure! my LFS feeds their's that and they go crazy

 

does it matter if they are freeze dried or frozen?

 

Try both, I know some have better luck with freeze dried, while others swear by frozen.

 

first of all, you know that they are brackish and eventually convert to salt right? now that we've got that out of the way, maybe try some frozen mysis shrimp or cyclops; that usually works for most fish, even my algae blenny!!!

 

Freeze Dried BLOODWORMS!!!! Mine loves them but will eat anything pretty much...

 

yes i know that they are brackish/saltwater fish and we can only raise the salinity by.002 a week so in like 2 more months it will be a full saltwater fish.

 

Mine went for things right away but he loves these flakes (make sure to get the ones with garlic) and all of the frozen food mix.

Do you feed him snails everyday? I'd give him a day and a half to starve and then try the dead food. If that hasn't worked, I'd teach him to eat snails at the surface (try dipping one in the water and holding it there) and then once he is used to that defrost some frozen food on a plate and scoop up some with a straw and put it at the water surface when he is watching. That way, he might attack it thinking it's a snail or at least associating it as food and then realize it's good stuff.

 

like i said all he eats is snails at the moment frozen food has been tried along with freeze dried snails and scallops. today i am trying bloodworms and seeing how that goes but yes he eats snails every day and the snails that dont sink for some reason get eaten right up so he knows how to eat off the surface but when he realizes the dead food isn't moving he lets it sink and swims away. he investigates it a few time but never even tries to eat it. frozen shrimp(human stuff) was a bit better he ate some for a little bit but the only thing he seems to love are the snails. there is no way with as many snails as he eats that his teeth are overgrown so i am starting to think that he might just be really really picky.

 

my puffer was the same way when i first acquired it. he still sometimes do it but never eats them just play with the snails. purely he is now on frozen bloodworm diet and he goes crazy over it. he only eats bloodworm and mysis shrimp but prefers bloodworm.