Best Food for a Dogface Puffer?
 

I just acquired a Dogface puffer yesterday. To be on the safe side I currently have it in a 20 gallon quarantine tank. When this fish first arrived yesterday it immediately went into hiding and seemed quite stressed which is not really surprising. It did pick a little at some Brine Shrimp today but what I am wondering is what would be the best food to start feeding to really entice this fish to eat? The guy at the fish store said he had been feeding it Krill which it had been accepting. I understand these fish like to eat hard shelled foods such as prawns, crabs or mussels but I do not want to put too much meaty food into the 20 gallon tank for fear of ruining the water quality (I could always do frequent water changes if necessary). This fish will be going into a 135 gallon tank once it has gone through the quarantine period.

puffer
 

I would feed it some larger food such as mysis shrimp/clams krill and squid.Like you said it is stressed a bit.Give it time

Thanks for the input. I will be going to the LFS today to pick up some food specifically for this fish. When I went to check on the Puffer today I noticed he appears to have a little bit of Ich. I have read that these fish can be sensitive to copper which is what I have always used in the past to treat Ich in my quarantine tank. Not sure if I should avoid treating with copper all together or use a small amount. The other option I have considered is doing large water changes in the quarantine tank using the water from my 135 gallon tank to try and get rid of the Ich parasites as they drop off the fish.

Which LFS did you get that puffer from? I had my eye on one that i was going to pick up today. lol

that would suckfor me if you already nabbed him....

If you really want to entice him your best bet is live food's.
Iv'e found the little hitchhikeing crabs are easy to get and usually free or cheap.

I got him at Reefkeepers but they actually had one more Dog Faced puffer when I picked this fish up Thursday night.

I use spectrum pellets, he just loves them. He was grey when I got him, and now he is almost half gold. Use spectrum, krill, prwns I have 3 puffers a ll really happy.

just start getting a feeding response using krill or something else meaty. brine shrimp dont have a lot of nutrition to them.

Keep an eye on the puffer's teeth. if left unchecked, they can grow large enough to block the puffer from eating at all. to prevent this you need to feed stuff that will grind down the puff's teeth. "stuff" may include frozen clam/mussel (do not crack the shell for him), krill (to a lesser degree), hermits, crab and snails. I would feed a staple of krill and just supplement often with harder stuff. hard stuff is not required at all feedings, but i would do it often depending on how fast the puff's teeth grow.

I picked up some Krill today. I put the Krill on the end of a shish kabob stick and the puffer immediately gobbled down the krill when it was placed in front of him. I ended up feeding him several Krill which he readily accepted. The Puffer now goes after the shish kabob stick and chomps on the end as soon as I put it in the tank. Once this fish starts to become more active and gets over the stress of being moved I will start to feed him something a little bit harder to ensure his teeth get worn down.

I've got a nice puffer eats anything but his teeth are starting to get long.
Feed him closed clams but they don't seem to be wearing down.
Any ideas appreciated.

try hermits and snails. if it starts to get desperate (when the puffer actually has a hard time even getting food in) then sedating the fish and playing dentist with a dremel may be necessary. hopefully it doesnt come to that.

Hi there,

yes, puffers are very sensitive to copper. HOWEVER, the dogface puffer can go through a copper treatment, BUT not the same concentration of copper as the copper bottle will say. If you do follow those instuctions as per the bottle you will KILL your puffer. I do have a copper dose amounts for puffers ONLY, if your interested. Also I would need to know what kind of copper you were thinking of using?? It does make a difference. BUT a copper treatment should be your LAST resort. Especially if the puffer is still eating and is too new. Here's some questions for ya.

1. How big is your Quarantine tank?
2. How big is the puffer?
3. Are you sure the puffer has ich?
4. Is the puffer breathing heavy?
5. Have you done the freshwater dip test?

It will give me a better idea of the puffers conditions and how fast the water could spoil. With you adding more water from the main tank. It will never flush the ich eggs out and if you know the life cycle of ich, it doesn't hatch or fall off the fish for approx 3-7 days before it re hatches.

If you are SURE, you indeed have ich. I would suggest doing a more natural method I use, if your up for it. Let me know.


Hope this helps. :mrgreen:


p.s Food - I feed my puffers Krill & mysis. They seem to like that best. Some times I give them a live snail or live crab for a treat.

Thanks for the advice. The Puffer never did make it through the quarantine period. I would like to get another Puffer and I was wondering what would be the best procedure to quarantine one of these fish to ensure it is safe to place into the main tank? I have heard that hypo-salinity is one way to treat Ich on fish such as Puffers that do not have scales. My quarantine tank is a 20 gallon which I believe is a little on the small side for a Puffer.

What do you mean by the freshwater dip test? I have done freshwater dips before but I have never heard of the freshwater dip test.

Just use cupprimine it is not as bad as copper, I have treated all 3 of my puffers and my cowfish with cupprimine just add it slow works fabulous 1cc per 10gallons. P.S I feed my puffers prawns, krill, spectrum pellets, clams ( in the shell helps with ther teeth)

Live Rock
 

I know this is a little off topic but do Puffers use certain things such as live rock to tone there teeth? Kinda like see Rabbits (We should just call them Rabbitfaced Puffers). Anyways a big thing is to limit live feeding EXPECIALY freshwater items such as feeder fish.
Levi

We feed Irene's Porcupine Puffer freeze-dried Krill & sometimes small shore crabs. It's become very tame & swims right to the glass whenever she's near.