Pea Puffer Feeding

[Ryan1988]

Hey Everyone, 

I just wanted to get your thoughts. My 3 pea puffers which i recently got from Aqua Huna have not really taken to the food provided. They are much more interested in what ever I can't see in the substrate. I have tried Frozen Brine Shrimp from Aquarium Co Op and Vibra Bites from Hikari. They came very small as you can see below so perhaps that's why? Fortunately there are plenty of snails + what ever they are going after in the substrate. 

Thank you,

Ryan. 

[Odd Duck]

There has been quite a lot posted in the forum about feeding pea puffers.  Here’s a link to a fairly extensive recent discussion.  There are a couple links in my signature that might interest you.  Both have evolved away from pea puffers but the first page or so of each topic will be informative.  Check out the “6 G Buce” link and the “29 G pea puffer” link along with the link attached below to an identical topic.  Sorry, @KittenFishMom if it brings up bad memories.

 

[Rewcolee1]

Mine will eat pretty much most frozen food I put in. However, they definitely seem to prefer bloodworms.

[JettsPapa]

Mine will eagerly eat frozen blood worms, but I don't think that would be good for a steady diet.  It seems to do just fine for weeks eating just snails when I don't get around to feeding bloodworms.

[Ryan1988]

@JettsPapa Yeah, i'm going to pick some frozen blood worms up today. They aren't eating the freeze dried bloodworms or freeze dried brine shrimp. I don't know what i can't see that is in my substrate but every morning I see them pecking at it. Perhaps there is worms or tiny snail eggs they are going after. 

[JettsPapa]

I would encourage you to go slow with the frozen blood worms.  They might not eat them right away (I didn't mention it yesterday, but it took mine a while to figure out that they were good to eat), and they don't need much.  Two or three per feeding is probably enough.

[Odd Duck]

On 11/2/2023 at 6:53 AM, Ryan1988 said:

@JettsPapa Yeah, i'm going to pick some frozen blood worms up today. They aren't eating the freeze dried bloodworms or freeze dried brine shrimp. I don't know what i can't see that is in my substrate but every morning I see them pecking at it. Perhaps there is worms or tiny snail eggs they are going after. 

My peas have never even considered eating anything dry.  They wouldn’t even eat wingless fruit flies.  I can barely get them to eat anything frozen.  They may be spoiled but they only eat live foods.  A steady diet of only frozen bloodworms is not sustainable health wise for them.  They need more variety.  I’ve started cultures of no less than 10 different types of live foods to be able to raise pea puffer fry and satisfy them through all life stages.  They don’t need 10 different live foods, but you’ll need to find at least 3-4 different foods they will eat if you want them to stay healthy.