Pea Puffers Picky Eaters?

[cichlidsickness]

I've actually moved for school so I decided to setup a 5 gallon as I can't keep any big tanks here.

Ive got a few pea puffers in here with a lot of plants and a piece of driftwood. The pet store owner said freeze dried blood worms and/or plankton would work. I know that they really like snails, live (or even frozen) blood worms but I was really hoping to get them to eat freeze dried. Its been 3 days now and none of them want to eat anything freeze dried.

Ive read that they can be picky. Will starving them do the trick or will they just not accept freeze dried foods?

 

[Fat Homer]

freeze dried bloodworms seem to be hit or miss in my limited experience with them...

But Freeze Dried Brine Shrimp by Hikari they used to seem to like... Although be warned it can be messy, as it comes out as a small cube shape that just breaks apart really easily...

With all that being said, regular frozen blood worms or Cali Blackworms seemed most relished by these guys...

 

[convict360]

hate freeze dried blood worms, tried them once for my fish; none of them touched it, it looks horrible.

My pea puffers did however, relish frozen bloodworms; and suspect yours would too

 

[cichlidsickness]

Ill try some freeze dried brine shrimp, do you all think they'll like it?

I really don't want to do frozen cause I dont know how my roomates will take to having bloodworms in the fridge lol.

 

[convict360]

Ill try some freeze dried brine shrimp, do you all think they'll like it?

I really don't want to do frozen cause I dont know how my roomates will take to having bloodworms in the fridge lol.

Just don't tell them, what they don't know can't hurt them haha; wrap in a bag

 

[cichlidsickness]

Lol I'm definitely prepared to do that if I have too.

Is it worth it to starve them out until they eat freeze dried? Or will they starve themselves to death?

 

[hooliganATV]

i would not recommend starving for too long, these little guys go from good to bad in a short space of time.

i started with a group of 12, lost a few, sold a few males on and now have a solid group of 5, after warming and trying everything in the freezer and shelves the only thing that seems to get them to eat is frozen blood worm. i feed every other day and small amounts, i still put other stuff in but have yet to see them with big fat bellys on anything but snails and blood worm. i also put a feeding floating thing in there so i drop a small chunk in there and they all get a chance to eat.

oh also just to clear it up i brought the group of 12 as wild caught, so the ones i lost didn't look that good on arrival, wouldn't eat anything at all and deteriorated very quick like a couple of days quick, i suspect it was parasites as the rest did start to eats much better after a full treatment for worms.

 

[hooliganATV]

feeding thing is in the front floating, its just an inlet cover but works a treat

 

[convict360]

Yea, you dont want to starve these guys; I'm willing to bet they won't accept freeze dried at all, it probably doesn't smell the same to them due to it being so weird out of the pack etc, so they don't see it as a food at all

 

[cichlidsickness]

Wow thats a nice tank Hooligan, i like the natural theme you got going there.

I'm guessing they wont take freeze dried either but I'm gonna try my hardest lol. Ive had some dwarf puffers in the past and they all accepted frozen bloodworms. Im guessing I can get away with using one cube for 3 or 4 feedings, and can possibly even pick up some pest snails from the local petco from time to time.