# Can a dwarf puffer survive mainly on snails and shrimp?



## AquaNekoMobile

Say if I was to put one dp into a 20 gal tank that has an established snail and shrimp population? I was thinking of making a self feeding tank and then incorperate it into an aquaponics setup to keep the water extra clean as my plants filter the water for the dp. I'm thinking it may work out and save on feed and should I forget to be home the do still has some nomnom.


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## carmenh

That would probably be quite a healthy diet if fed per day, but the issue I see is that most puffers will literally eat until they explode...really...google for pix or check the puffer forum if you must see to believe...

Carmen


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## AquariAM

You should never keep anything on just live food. All fish that CAN be supplemented with a balanced vitaminized diet should be.


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## AquaNeko

carmenh said:


> That would probably be quite a healthy diet if fed per day, but the issue I see is that most puffers will literally eat until they explode...really...google for pix or check the puffer forum if you must see to believe...
> 
> Carmen


I googled 'dwarf puffer explode' and 'puffer fish explode' no dice. Think you can link me hte pic. I'm curious.

Well I was going to find lots of folage and hiding places for the snails to hide and the shrimp to hide and a possible divider in the tank with some slightly enlarged entries so the shirmp/snails can enter but the DP can't that way the live food source can hide away and the DP has to wait and hunt later if they come out.


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## Philip.Chan.92

AquariAM said:


> You should never keep anything on just live food. All fish that CAN be supplemented with a balanced vitaminized diet should be.


What do pea puffers eat besides live foods? I hear they usually reject flakes and pellets, that's the only reason why I deterred from buying them. I hear frozen bloodworms are their staple diet, can I feed them live white worms instead? I have a 5 gal for one, after I move the betta to a 10 gal that I may be getting sometime soon...hopefully lol. Planning to bring the 5 gal with me to university


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## Ciddian

I have mine in a shrimp and snail tank. He doesn't eat till he explodes but I can't speak for all puffers thats for sure.

I feed bloodworm and a mix of pellets for the shrimp.


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## Philip.Chan.92

Anyone try whiteworms? Don't want to get tons of different foods


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## AquaNeko

Philip.Chan.92 said:


> What do pea puffers eat besides live foods? I hear they usually reject flakes and pellets, that's the only reason why I deterred from buying them. I hear frozen bloodworms are their staple diet, can I feed them live white worms instead? I have a 5 gal for one, after I move the betta to a 10 gal that I may be getting sometime soon...hopefully lol. Planning to bring the 5 gal with me to university


That's one of the huge downsides of fish that only eat live foods. If you need to AWOL for a weekend somewhere or vacation and the IDK time/space/moon phase does not work out with your friends/family to come over and take over to check up on the fish that is what I was thinking on the long term situation there.

Now I'm thinking if I had something like a um... 30gal breeder or something very wide I can divide off 1/3 of the tank and put all the food the snails/shrimp need in that side and enlarge some divider holes so any explorers from a population explosion that travel out the DP can swim around and hunt all around the folage working up an appetite like in nature to find thier food.


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## carmenh

My puffers don't get any prepared foods, they eat frozen supermarket seafood and live foods (earthworms, snails, clams) only. Variety is the key, and vitamins can be added if desired...
Still looking for the thread on bursting puffers, will post asap... I don't believe it was dp's but same thing...no ribs...

Carmen


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## TBemba

I have 2 pea puffers a BA's special (son just had to have them) I put some snails in the tank but mainly feed flake and some discus bits (similar to tetra bits) They are still motoring fine. They seem pretty hardy since I don't think my kid feeds them every day. They also get along fine with a pair of hi fin Swords and a royal farlowella. 4 months so far.

Funny but I have yet to see any sword babies but I have read the Black sword with orange fin males take a while to mature.


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## carmenh

I haven't been able to locate the thread with pix but if you go to the puffer forum and search "Feeding questions for pea puffers", there is info on it...
I also tried the separator idea in a 65 g with shrimps and snails on one side and my Turgidus on the other. Within a month or so, the population was decimated and my puffer was obese 
He now lives alone. That said, he's a lot bigger than a dp so who knows...

Carmen


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## TBemba

The pea puffers My son has are the size of well peas (go figure) I have ramshorn snails 2x the size of them in the tank as well as smaller snails. I have no idea if they eat the snails but they certainly have not gorged themselves on them. They accept flake food with gusto (but like I said I make sure they have some food at least every other day)


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## characinfan

Whiteworms are pretty fatty and should be used as a treat only.

Probably the puffers would do fine with mostly snails and the occasional worm/flake supplement. Live snails have guts full of plant material, which provides a certain measure of vitamins for the puffers.

When I had puffers, they would eat not until they exploded or anything like that,  but they would go around killing snails long beyond the point where they had room for them in their own stomachs. Normally puffers suck smaller snails out of their shells, but when they'd had a lot of snails, they would just bite off the snails' heads, leaving the bodies to rot. (I suspect this was because they were so full that they could not expand their bodies enough to generate sufficient suction to suck the snails out of their shells).

In short, it's probably healthier for your puffer and a more efficient use of your snails to feed the puffer a few snails per day rather than let him/her browse on snails until he/she gets full.


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## AquariAM

Snails are not a sufficient food source for a truly healthy puffer in my opinion. You can keep it alive indefinitely, but to truly thrive a more balanced diet is required. If you can get them onto a really high quality staple diet, and use things like shrimp and snails as maybe 30 or 40 percent of the diet, your puffer will be much better off IMO.


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## KhuliLoachFan

My puffers will eat anything live, or frozen. They will not eat any flake, or pellets. They particularly love live shrimp and snails.

Snails are essential to most puffer's health, not only because they are full of nutrition, and Puffers are predators in nature, but also because the shells help wear down the 'beak' on a puffer.

Puffers who have been fed on a diet of mostly frozen foods will die very soon, compared to ones who have been given snails.

Most puffer web forums will caution you against feeding mostly MTS (malaysian trumpet snails). The shells are too hard. Small ramshorns are ideal puffer feeders.

But you should keep your primary snail colony somewhere OTHER than your puffer tank. First, your puffer will kill every single one, in no time. Second, over-feeding your puffer will sicken him.

[In nature your puffer would not eat ONLY snails, or only 1 thing. Variety is important. One reason to feed shrimp occasionally is that you can gut load them with spirulina, and get your puffer his veggies.]

W


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## Philip.Chan.92

Will dwarf puffers eat freeze dried bloodworms?


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## characinfan

Philip.Chan.92 said:


> Will dwarf puffers eat freeze dried bloodworms?


Yes, if offered individually on the end of a toothpick (and wiggled, at least until the fish get used to this format of food).


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## AquaNekoMobile

What about insects? Like tiny chrickets, tiny meal worms, tiny earthworms?


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## KhuliLoachFan

Almost any fish will love to eat any insect it can fit into its mouth. Many lake and river species eat insects routinely. If you watch any lake in ontario, you can see the fish feeding on the insects that are on the surface skin of the water. My fish love any insects, grubs, slugs, garden snails etc. Make sure your household is doing pesticide-free gardening, and has been doing that for some years, before you feed anything out of your garden to any of your fish. And for your first go at this, I would feed some bugs from your garden to your least favorite fish. You can never be TOO careful with garden stuff.

W


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## KhuliLoachFan

Warning; Do not make freeze-dried foods a staple for your puffers. 

Many puffer-forum people report that puffers fed on a steady supply of freeze-dried food develop lockjaw, or stop eating, and then die.


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## carmenh

+1 on freeze dried not being a staple. Also, when I do treat my guys to jumbo krill, I put it in a large syringe, fill it with water, and pull the plunger back until a vacuum is created, completely waterlogging the food. Air in a puffers stomach is a bad thing...

Carmen


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## Philip.Chan.92

Can someone list a diet agenda appropriate for the whole lifetime of the puffer from the time you buy it?

Like "x" food "y" amount of times per week or something along those lines


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## carmenh

http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/library/category/feeding/
All the info you'll ever need about puffers is available on the Puffer Forum. You sound like you wnat to do it right, I'd seriously consider joining, or at least reading through the articles...

Carmen


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## Philip.Chan.92

carmenh said:


> http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/library/category/feeding/
> All the info you'll ever need about puffers is available on the Puffer Forum. You sound like you wnat to do it right, I'd seriously consider joining, or at least reading through the articles...
> 
> Carmen


Thanks that clarifies a lot of my questions. Now to get my 10 gallon for the betta and neons so I have the 5 gal for a puffer or two.


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## carmenh

Sounds fun  In a 5 gallon, you'd only be able to have one, but that's easier anyhow, since when you get more than one, you need to pay attention to the ratio of males to females to discourage fighting. I don't remember the specifics, but again, it'll be on PF if you need it


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## KhuliLoachFan

I'll add one thing; Having kept puffers for over 3 years now, they are the one fish that makes me smile more than any other fish. If I was a psychiatrist, I would prescribe a puffer tank, instead of prozac, because it just might make some people happier. When I lived in my apartment, I used to wake up in the morning and the three puffers in my puffer tank, which was beside my bed, would waggle their little tails and swim up to the glass, and smile their little puffer smiles. This got me out of bed in the morning on days when I would rather not have. It really is one of the great pleasures of the hobby, the puffer tank. And as they will tell you over at the puffer forum, the puffer should be the thing you build your whole tank around, or not included at all. There are species that can be kept with it. I keep bumblebee gobies with my figure-8 puffers and gsps, with no problems. But start by reading everything over at the puffer forum, and you'll do great. Personally, I love the GSP and the Figure 8. Some people here are keeping their GSPs in full marine when they reach adulthood. I am keeping my GSPs and Figure 8s at a very light brackish and they are doing very very well. If you are going to go with brackish or marine puffer, be sure to get a good salinity measurement technique. Hydrometers are cheap and innacurate. Refractometers are the way to go. Budget $50 to $70.

W

W


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## carmenh

+1 on everything klf said. It's hard to be cranky with this looking up and wiggling at you 

Carmen


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## AquariAM

carmenh said:


> +1 on everything klf said. It's hard to be cranky with this looking up and wiggling at you
> 
> Carmen


Gorgeous fish. Can you post the full tank pic?


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## carmenh

I don't have a current pic and I wanted to clean the glass before taking one, so will post soon. In the meantime, Frankie says hi!


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## carmenh

Here's a FTS of Zephyr's home. It's a 90g, and he has it to himself except for a few rogue hermit crabs that harassed the corals in my other tank and a few pest hitchhiker crabs I've thrown in there from my or friends' tanks...


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## Philip.Chan.92

that's a nice setup you have there


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## carmenh

Thank you


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## KhuliLoachFan

Awesome tank!  Is that a full reef setup with reef lighting?

W


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## carmenh

Thanks! I guess it would be considered FOWLR. It's only t8's, but it's a 3 tube fixture. Mushrooms seem to do okay with it. If the xenias in my reef tank keep going crazy, I may try a few in here. Zephyr's previous owner said he ate anything in the tank with him but he hasn't hurt the mushrooms so why not?
There's a koralia and an AC 110 filled with LR rubble to keep things circulating. About 150lb LR in the tank and a hang-on skimmer take care of the filtration.

Carmen


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## Pea Puffer Lover

KhuliLoachFan said:


> My puffers will eat anything live, or frozen. They will not eat any flake, or pellets. They particularly love live shrimp and snails.
> 
> Snails are essential to most puffer's health, not only because they are full of nutrition, and Puffers are predators in nature, but also because the shells help wear down the 'beak' on a puffer.
> 
> Puffers who have been fed on a diet of mostly frozen foods will die very soon, compared to ones who have been given snails.
> 
> Most puffer web forums will caution you against feeding mostly MTS (malaysian trumpet snails). The shells are too hard. Small ramshorns are ideal puffer feeders.
> 
> But you should keep your primary snail colony somewhere OTHER than your puffer tank. First, your puffer will kill every single one, in no time. Second, over-feeding your puffer will sicken him.
> 
> [In nature your puffer would not eat ONLY snails, or only 1 thing. Variety is important. One reason to feed shrimp occasionally is that you can gut load them with spirulina, and get your puffer his veggies.]
> 
> W


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## Pea Puffer Lover

Im planning to get a pea puffer but Im not sure if it is safe to feed it ramshorn snails straight from my pond. Im trying my best to go cheap on the food, any ideas?


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