hanks@yale.UUCP (Steve Hanks) (02/16/88)
I recently bought a puffer fish to control a snail
infestation in my tank. Well, the thing made
short work of the snails (the visible ones, anyway)
but now I'm worried that s/he may not be getting
enough to eat. The salesperson at the pet store
said that s/he (the fish, not the salesperson) would
eat flake food, but I haven't seen any evidence of that.
When the other fish get fed s/he just kind of motors
around aimlessly looking as though s/he'd like
something to eat too but doesn't
know where to find it. So here are the questions:
Will s/he really eat flake food if s/he gets hungry
enough (perhaps s/he is just not hungry yet after
gorging him/herself on snails). Perhaps sh/e just
doesn't feed as often. If s/he is indeed in need
of some other kind of food, what might it be? Is
there perhaps enough invisible snail action in the
tank so I don't have to worry?
This fish is just about the cutest thing you can
imagine, and I want to do right by him/her, but
it's so hard to tell......
Thanks,
Steve.
hanks@cs.yale.edu ...!decvax!yale!hanksrichard@gryphon.CTS.COM (Richard Sexton) (02/16/88)
They will eat worms, all kinds (can't reccomend tubifex - too
dirty) and will also eat clams, mussels, that kinda stuff.
There is an account of breeding the red-eyed puffer (Tetradon
Somphongsii) in _breeding problem fishes_ (I think it's book 2)
wherein the author describes his puffers eating nothing but
live mussels. You probably have the (much) more common figure 8.
Good luck.
If they are hungry enough, they'll eat flake food though.
I tried puffers to get rid of snails once too. They got rid of
all the *visible* snails, but as soon as I removed them (because
they were eating the plants - which is why i wanted to get rid
of the snails - so were they) the snails returned.
Sigh.
--
"He tried to do his best, but he could not"
richard@gryphon.CTS.COM
{ihnp4!scgvaxd!cadovax, rutgers!marque, codas!ddsw1} gryphon!richardandre@nrc-ut.UUCP (Andre' Hut) (02/18/88)
In article <23229@yale-celray.yale.UUCP> hanks@yale.UUCP (Steve Hanks) writes: >I recently bought a puffer fish to control a snail >infestation in my tank. A puffer fish is just about the worst thing you can put in a "community" tank. You will soon find that the puffer will eat the fins of other fish. They swim so wierd that the other fish don't know what is going on until it's too late. I had puffers once... I finally put them in their own tank, and in another tank I raised snails. I would feed them snails daily. Just drop'em in and the snail won't even make it to the bottom. Crunchies... -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- sdcsvax-\ ihnp4-\ \ \ Andre' Hut sdcrdcf!psivax!nrcvax!nrc-ut!andre / / / hplabs--/ ucbvax!calma-/ / utah-gr!uplherc/ Network Research Corporation 923 Executive Park Dr. Suite C Salt Lake City, Utah 84117 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------