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Well, I'm sad to say the two little ones didn't make it and the big one doesn't seem to have much of an appetite. I think they were wild caught and used to live foods. I'll hafta do sumthin about that I think. All water parameters aare fine, ph @ 7.2, ammonia and nitrite @0 nitrates hovering around 5-10 ppm. maybe I'll go dig up a worm

So sorry that you lost 2 of the 3 Puffers.
Try to get some Snails or Worms.


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I'm sorry about your fish, but do not just dig up a worm from the backyard. A lot of the worms carry bacteria that won't affect them but might affect the dwarf puffers. Go to your lfs and ask for some snails, they will probably be more than happy to give you some. Also, if you want to try worms buy them from a petstore where they are kept in sanitary conditions and are bred for the purpose of being eaten.

Live brine shrimp generally work for dp's, mine also eat frozen brine shrimp and blood worms. Pond snails also work great.

If puffer still will not eat, try a earthworm, I have had no harmful side effects from using them, but honestly they eat snails and frozen and live brine shrimp and blood worms better.

good luck.

Is his stomach really sunken?

Ive noticed that having a tank with excessive lighting can be a cause of non-feeding , make sure the plants provide some serious cover, obviously you will have to choose low light species. Puffers do not acclimate well without shadows and plant leaves to hide in. With dense planting, ive found that they dont use caves or hides provided, typically they act a bit suspicious of cave openings.

if youre going to use terrestrial or garden colleced food for your puffers , earthworms would be a better choice than snails , since many garden snails contain heavy tapeworm loads, i think in your situation culturing livefood is the real answer. My puffers will eat mosquito larvae be they live or dead, and nutritionally they are ok for them, and all you really have to do is leave some water outside in a shady place to get some, even in grey and rainy old blighty.

Despite warnings on the use of brineshrimp, it is better to use something you know they eat rather than risk starvation until a better solution can be found.

In terms of availability of products, livefood and so forth the entire uk has no real supply problems , unlike our unfortunate canadian friends. If your local shop says they cant get livefoods in, theyre usually BS ing you. Try looking violent and asking again . Lots of pet shops in the uk offer a range of livefood, and you can order it over the internet, plus you cant drive a mile in this country without passing at least 5 people with a koi pond , so get off your behind and go ask someone if you can nick some pond snails, or net some live bloodworm - theyll hardly be gutted about it. Most koi keepers in the uk spend sleepless nights wondering how to get rid of pond snails so most of em will be like "sure dude help yourself, go wild mate" .Plead a good sob story about your puffers and im sure theyll be willing to help.If youre worries about parasites, dont use the original snails you collect from ponds for direct feeding- usually parasites cant infest the egg of snails, so seperate the eggs from the adults and raise them seperately in different water to guarantee parasite free food in the future.

You can pretty much raise snails in a bucket, so the purchase of another aquarium for raising them is not required- unless you really want to - but that money would probably best be spent on more plants for your puffers.

Let us know which region you live in and we can probably point you in the right direction.



Last edited by longhairedgit at 09-Sep-2005 22:50