# Other Aquarium Forums > Fish Care, Nutrition and Water Management >  Dwarf puffer diet

## gumball

Hi guys. I have recently acquired 2 dwarf puffers. I realized that they've not been eating and are really skinny. I've tried isolating the puffers from my main tank and dropping freeze dried jumbo bloodworms however they're not going for it. I do see them attacking my cherry red shrimps though. Is there something else I can try? I read they occasionally feast on snails. Can any bro out here advice on what else i can try and easy to get?

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## mukyo

as far as i experienced they only hunt for live food . had 5 all dead as i was too scared they attack my shrimps and isolate them. now my tank is infested with those small pond snail sobs

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## gumball

I read they eat brine shrimp. Is there anyway I can get maybe 1 or 2 brine shrimps? I see they always sell in a big bag at c328. I just want to try.

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## Max Lim

I feed it with sea monkey..sell in a pack of $1. But they will die off in few days time..need air pump. Feed the puffer using tweezer one by one, else other fish will eat it. The puffer will come to you like a dog when your tweezer goes into the tank:-) 
To me,I found spending time on it and let go the puffers fish after that..

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## Ingen

They feed on pond snails, live daphnia, live baby brine shrimps. I hatch my own brine shrimp these days as I was unable to find a stable supply, c328 usually sell out by the time i'm off work. I have never gotten them to eat frozen brine shrimp or daphnia before, rather anything "non-live".

I have three and they seem to leave my yellow back shrimps alone. I introduced colored shrimps of different sizes to test their reactions, all the shrimps were alive after a week. Praying hard they do not figure out that shrimps are tasteful food other than BBS and snails.

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## gumball

Hi igen, I think thats cause your puffers are well fed so they leave your shrimps alone. I think my puffers are getting desperate. Hehe. Oh man. Is there anyway to get just 1 or 2 brine shrimp? Else igen, would you like another 2 puffers if mine continue to not eat? Hehe

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## Ingen

My tank is to small for 5 pea puffers... Get a packet of baby brine shrimps and keep an air stone inside the packet, it should last two to three days, remember do not change the water inside the packet as brine shrimps cannot survive long in fresh water. The pea puffers will definitely eat them, however, I have never try full grown brine shrimps before, I read online they hunts the full grown too.

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## gyjd

Can try putting in small ghost shrimps to see if they'll eat.

I always keep my live brine shrimps in covered container and keep inside my fridge, not the freezer compartment please, the brine shrimp will hibernate and can last for upto a week.
Can change partial water by adding your tank water for the live brine shrimps, hope this helps.


Tapatalk

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## gumball

hm where can I get baby brine shrimps? I see them selling brine shrimps at C328 but those look quite big and they sell in a huge bag! ghost shrimps huh? are they smaller than cherry red? I see them trying to attack my cherry reds but they do not seem to be having any luck cause the cherry reds dart away very quickly.

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## Ingen

They stock around 6pm daily. You can either wait at C328 or try calling to reserve. The baby ones get snap up very quickly.

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## gumball

Ah I see, thanks Ingen, so they come in small packets? oh man looks like i need to set up another tank just for the brine shrimps -_-

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## Ingen

They sell in big packet, I used to buy it and keep them alive for 2-3 days before I started to hatch my own. 

I can't recall the brand of brine shrimp eggs that I bought, I got it from petsmart at Serangoon and take note that you have to get the marine salt (about two tablespoons in 1L water), I use the 1.5L mineral water bottle to hatch the brine shrimps, just put in an airstone and wait for 1-1.5 days for most of the eggs to hatch.

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## gumball

oh man, I just want 1 or 2 to try and see if my puffers will eat them. Do you isolate the puffers from the rest of the tank to feed them? My puffers are with my other tetras and shrimps.

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## Ingen

Baby brine shrimps are very tiny (a dot size). I did not isolate them, I just take put a small scoop of bbs in the water and it will just spread around the tank. Puffers will go for it automatically.

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## gumball

wow, the ones I saw at C328 are massive then compared to the dot. Thanks for the advice Ingen, I'll have to find some of the BBS for them or I'll have to give them up to ensure their survival.

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## Ingen

Where do you stay? If you are staying near lakeside, you can drop by my place and I can pass you some. Current batch was hatched 3 days ago, going to disposal of the leftover tonight.

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## gumball

Hi Ingen, I'm at bukit gombak. I can head over on my way home to grab the left over if you don't mind. why do you want to dispose of the left overs anyway?

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## Ingen

1. They starts to die off around 3 days onwards, probably due to the lack of food in the water.
2. I read online BBS is not very nutritional after the first day of hatching. But I find keeping it for just one day is too much of a hassle.

PM me your number and we can arrange for pick up. Not lot of hatching left, but should be enough for two puffers.

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## Urban Aquaria

I had 2 dwarf puffers before last year in my snail tank (populated with little pond snails that i harvested from LFS plants during quarantine).

When they depleted the snail population, i supplemented them with Hikari Carnivore pellets and they thrived on it for months, maybe can try that out.  :Smile:

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## gumball

Hi Urban Aquaria, I'll take a note of that and try that if the brine shrimps don't work.

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## Urban Aquaria

> Hi Urban Aquaria, I'll take a note of that and try that if the brine shrimps don't work.


Yeah, one of the other reasons why i only fed them pond snails and carnivore pellets was to "train" them to only go for those type of foods... i was worried if i start to feed them brine shrimps, they might get used to those so much that if i eventually need to shift them into one of my other tanks to clear pest snails, they might just end up hunting my shrimps instead.  :Grin:

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## David

UA...you puffers did not become a tank terror?

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## Urban Aquaria

> UA...you puffers did not become a tank terror?


Well, all that time they were only in their own tank with snails and they were quite peaceful... though i never did eventually put them in any of my other community tanks with other fishes, so i didn't get to see if they were really tank terrors or not. 

Eventually had to reduce the number of tanks i had, so i give them away. Quite tempted to start a species-only tank again in the future, they are very fun to watch when hunting snails.  :Smile:

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## David

UA...I know what you mean....the way they move around....as mentioned by Ingen - submarine...to me they move like cuttlefishes.... :Smile:

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## Ingen

Cuttlefishes work too lol

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## gumball

Update: Ingen very kindly provided me with some snails and BBS/BBS eggs last night. They did not really seem to go for the snail or the BBS while I was watching. I'll continue hatching the BBS for the puffers and update here. Thanks Ingen!

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## Ingen

Hope it's not too late. All best!

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## Shaihulud

They will eat live tubifex worm, which is easier to get. Pond/ramshorn snails are the best imo.

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## the4thsaint

if you want to save the trouble of cultivating the brine shrimps, you can buy packets of frozen bloodworms available at most LFS. That's what I used to feed my dwarf puffer.

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## ConcaveLiNkiN

> if you want to save the trouble of cultivating the brine shrimps, you can buy packets of frozen bloodworms available at most LFS. That's what I used to feed my dwarf puffer.


That was what I understand initially too. But some of our puffer owners experience that they only hunt for live food, therefore they do not eat the dead worms. Perhaps, they spoilt by their owners haha, could be. Nevertheless, if you feed your puffers with frozen blood worms, they do not consume, then you will need to feed them with live food.


Cheers
eRic

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## sakuras

Hi I would like to know where i could find snails to feed my dwarf puffer. Thanks. Have only been feeding frozen bloodworms and would like to give him a variety.

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## Berny

most lfs sells snails. feeder pond snails are sold in packets in C328

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## David

Unless the tank is not a planted tank, I think it may be better to hatch BBS then throw in pond snails...my take, not a good idea.

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## Berny

i *think*, i *might* have seen C328 sell feeder clams or what not

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## sakuras

Ok thanks guys! Other than c328 any other lfs near central have feeder pond snails?

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## ConcaveLiNkiN

> Ok thanks guys! Other than c328 any other lfs near central have feeder pond snails?


I've been running around LFSs in Singapore, there are not much left though. I think clementi is the only place I find the pond snails for sale, rest of the places, algae eating snails. There are a few LFS in upper serangoon, you can try them. Recall months back that I saw one of the shops selling them. But I have not been there in a while.


Cheers
eRic

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## Berny

you can buy maybe 1 set and self breed them at home

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## ConcaveLiNkiN

> you can buy maybe 1 set and self breed them at home
> 
> Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 4


Bro, are you able to share how we can breed these snails? Just 2 of them will do? How about the conditions of the water?


Cheers
eRic

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## Xanavi

Will a lone puffer totally eliminate the entire snail population in the tank? The number of snails in my tank has reduced by quite a lot since I added in the puffer. Although I am quite glad that this is the case, I also hate to think that I will need to manually feed the puffer if all the snails are wiped out.

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## ConcaveLiNkiN

> Will a lone puffer totally eliminate the entire snail population in the tank? The number of snails in my tank has reduced by quite a lot since I added in the puffer. Although I am quite glad that this is the case, I also hate to think that I will need to manually feed the puffer if all the snails are wiped out.


If your intention is eliminate the snails, why don't you use a snail trap instead? That is pretty effective as well.


Cheers
eRic

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## Berny

> Bro, are you able to share how we can breed these snails? Just 2 of them will do? How about the conditions of the water?
> 
> 
> Cheers
> eRic
> 
> Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


 http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/sh...d.php?t=198632
google helps.

That aside, pond snails are considered pest due to their amazing reproduction rate.



> _Like the Roman snail, pond snails also are hermaphrodites. Contrary to their terrestrial relative, pond snails have separate genital openings, so mating can only occur in one direction, not vice-versa. The characteristic egg batches of pond snails (see picture on the left) are stuck to water plants and stones._
> _In populations with a low number of individuals, for example after the occupation of a new water body, pond snails can also perform auto-fertilisation. But this can only serve to increase numbers. To mix genes, common sexual reproduction is necessary._


source: http://molluscs.at/gastropoda/index....r/lymnaea.html

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## ConcaveLiNkiN

Amazing find, bro. Thanks for the information, I could save on the pond snails and perhaps enjoy breeding them. For me, it is pretty fun watching them grow.

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## Urban Aquaria

When i had a snail colony running a while back, i put them in a cheap 10 litre glass tank... just installed a mini hang-on filter and light, along with some used aquasoil substrate and wood/rocks pieces, then stuffed it full of excess plants from all the trimmings from other tanks. All the snails that i picked out of plants from LFS/farms during their quarantine i transferred into the snail tank.

I fed the snails small bits of shrimp food pellets and blanched vegetable scraps. Within 2-3 months, counted close to 100+ snails of different varieties inside.

I've found that the conditions for snails to thrive and breed is quite similar to shrimps (they are both aquatic invertebrates with shells anyways), so maybe can also just use a shrimp tank as double duty to breed snails too.  :Smile:

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## felix_fx2

Pouchsnails... nice at the start...  :Smile: 

@UA, shrimps die much more easily haha.

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## Urban Aquaria

> @UA, shrimps die much more easily haha.


True... will usually eventually end up with snail-only tank.  :Grin:

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## Ingen

Any update from TS or perhaps the puffers are in somewhere better now?

I have three puffers and I feed them snails (not that I'm breeding) from my 1ft cube, however, I find it quite cruel to watch. I understand it's nature and all, feeding snails and BBS are not much difference. It was fun to watch at first, but after a few times, it starts to feel cruel to see the innocent snails that were once happy in the 1ft cube tank suddenly attacked by puffers.

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## killkyo

I tried feeding snails to my green spotted puffers too but realized that they only eat the front part of the snail and left the dead snail alone after that. Any ideas why?

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## mukyo

they dont eat the shell right? thats a mess

-----------------------------------------
Visit and comment my L Tank and S Tank... <-- Click click !!
Thank you  :Smile:

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## kapitan

I have one tank mildly infested with irritant snails.... when I see them I will pick it up with a tweezer, sqash it and put the remains into another tank and see the tetra swallow eveything up, including the crush/partly crush shell....  :Smile:  cruel  :Smile:

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