Fahaka Puffer Feeding

[poolguyjason]

I have a 4-5" Fahaka Puffer, had him for about a month and a half. I'm mostly feeding him a few feeder goldfish a day. I have a few questions about feeding him though.

1) Approximately how many fish a day should I feed him? It seems like he's satisfied with 1/2, but if I drop in more for my other fish to eat (8" shovelnose, 8-9" long, 5-6" tall south american cichlid who eats them as well), then he will eat them regardless. I tried to feed the others by putting in more feeders, but he ate about 8 of the 10 I threw in, almost immediately. He has been eating TONS the entire time, and is looking great. Just making sure I'm not causing any problems for him :S

2) What other foods should I be feeding him? The LFS only sells feeder goldfish and ghost shrimp, but I want to give him something a little different. What would you guys recommend? I tried prepared shrimp, but he didn't really like it. Seems to prefer live food.

[fishboy]

THEY LOVE/NEED SNAILS!!!!!!! But no trumpeter snails. Also feeder fish are a terrible staple food, they lack alot of nutrients. Bloodworn or beefheart are good faty foods and are even better vitaim inhanced. But seriously buy a bunch of snails(apple or ramshorn and breed them in a 10 gallon). It's quite a show your puffer will break right through the shells, chew them up, spit them out, and repeat

[poolguyjason]

I did actually put in 2 Ramshorn snails, but he never really seemed too interested in them. I even didn't feed him for a day or so, threw in the pair of Ramshorns, and he still didn't seem very interested in them. I'll try again though.

[LittlePuff]

Bloodworms, shrimp, krill, pond snails.

Kim

[fishboy]

anything hard to wear his beak

[poolguyjason]

Originally Posted by LittlePuff

Bloodworms, shrimp, krill, pond snails.

Kim

I do feed Bloodworsm and Krill to the rest of my tank. He never seems to take interest in them. I tried shrimp as well, and he didn't even care about it. I think he enjoys the thrill of the kill lol. Anything he doesn't run down and kill, he doesn't seem to be interested in.

[Scuba Kid]

try a crayfish. They have pretty hard shells and ive heard of a lot of fahaka's liking them.
erm...Is your fahaka aggressive towards the other fish? They are very aggressive puffers...

[poolguyjason]

He's SUPER aggressive towards the feeder goldfish, but is more friendly with my other fish than I would have thought. I have never seen him attack another one of my fish, and none of them have puffer bite marks on them.

[LittlePuff]

Feeder goldfish are bad for a puffer. If you want something live, use ghost shrimp or worms.

Kim

[fishboy]

he'll grow evil with age and most likely kill everything when mature

[Yeahbut]

...who is now about 2 1/2 inches;

Night Crawlers
Ghost Shrimp
Snails
Frozen Bloodworms and Daphina

Night Crawlers - by far his favorite.

Ghost Shrimp - have just been introduced. Being only a "puppy", it's funny watching the ghost shrimp turn and fend themselves, throwing Baby Buford off, then getting away .. for a while.

When I go into the fish places here in Bloomington to buy frozen foods, I always ask for, and happily receive, for free, all the trash snails out dey tanks. Baby Buford crunches up the little pond snails. He ambushes the MTS and Ramshorn leaving the shells everywhere .. like castaway chicken bones

I toss the Bloodworm in frozen, which is attacked and ripped apart. The Daphina is for the little feeder guppies that he chases around. I notice Baby Buford doing a Blue Whale on Krill routine on the Daphina...cept I see him trying to chew every couple of inches!

[Yeahbut]

Why I otta!
My Cyber Roach, I found out, drinks Raid by the Quart!!!
I know the big picture of the Fahaka in my introduction thread IS of a BIG Fahaka. How big is he?

The question I had that I posted wrong place was/is..

I notice a little catfish looking thing in the backgroud, just off the nose of your "Buford Fish" in the picture... Is this food or a tankmate or both?

I keep going back and looking at the picture to see if he ate him yet! But he's still there!!

[lotsoffish]

Dude I ain't answering you here. I will only discuss Buford's on the high jacked black ghost post.

[maxinout13]

def puffs love snails they can also gut fish in seconds so before u lose other fish be weary off that ,slow his feeding down and he may start looking at other tank mates as food,i wouldnt feed him straight goldfish or guppies, or any feeders alot,the way they are shipped makes em very dirty and sick alot i usually quarenteen my feeders and treat with some pima or melafix then feed em, other foods may work : krill shrimp ghost shrimp beef hearts tetras shrimp pellets frozen shrimp or worms(blood worms black worms earthworms) i feed my fish tons of stuff for great vairety in thier diet,and not only my piranahs hehe

[Danh]

I have a 5" fahaka also. He has one tank mate, but I don't expect he will for long. Definitely try a crawfish. Mine loves shrimp. I try to give him shrimp heads, but more often it's just a piece of flesh.. He loves both. I always get pest snails when I buy feeders from the lfs, but that isn't often. Mine only eats the faces and tails of feeder fish when that's all I've got on me to feed him. I would definitely remove any fish that you don't want killed asap. Especially ones that require you to feed live. Get him by himself. Have the tank full of snails.. If he doesn't eat for 5 days or so add a crawfish or something else like that. Mine even eats pellets.

[Danh]

Didn't realize how old this was...

[MaelStrom]

http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/...-your-puffers/
http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/...egory/feeding/
Incase anyone is still wondering

[jjkolodz]

I know this is an old thread but if anyone is looking for tank mates for these guys you can try Giant Danios. They are fast enough so the puffer can't catch them unless he is really lucky. I've kept a few in with mine for about a month now and they are thriving off of all his scraps