Best Food for a Dogface Puffer?

[justinl]

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.

[bulletsworld]

Originally Posted by Palster

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.

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.


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.

[Palster]

Originally Posted by bulletsworld

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.


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.

[Skimmer Juice]

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)

[Zoaelite]

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

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

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.