puffer feeding help

[Celbrise]

i've had this green spotted puffer for a few years now doesn't seem to be getting any bigger even though it's coloration is looking good.

i have lately been feeding it soft foods which are not good for it's teeth like mysis shrimp,etc.. i've tried various hard foods like muscles, clams, snails, shrimp, squid, etc.. but it does not take a lot of these foods. it will readily take the ramshorn snails, shrimp, most frozen soft foods like brine shrimp and mysis shrimp and thats kind of about it. tried using muscles on half shells it won't touch them compared to just the meat alone and even then it won't touch that much either.

any help on how to feed this fish i've tried the garlic method which didn't work and i think i even tried a home made fish food mixture which also didn't work.

i am also having trouble getting it to work for it's food since it is small and the shrimp is big i have to cut them into smaller pieces but this just makes it easy to avoid the shell unless it is the tail. with the snails i have to smash them just for it to eat them or it won't bother with it. also don't have a readily available supply of snails we have a few in our pond but not a massive amount of them. stores here don't sell any small shrimps they sell feeder crawyfish but they are usually big and freshwater or course.

 

[Scott.h]

I have 3 valentine puffers, never a green spotted, but should be about the same. I don't think they get very big. As far as diet, mine have never gotten anything other then mysis, brine, formula one and two, with the occasional raw shrimp. All are several years old and no issues. Also tame enough to hand feed. I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Celbrise]

im just worried about it's teeth and it's size. they get to about 6 inches but mine seems to have stunted or is growing at a rapidly slow pace regardless it have more then enough tank space. any tips on how to feed raw shrimp? most stores here sell the jumbo shrimps only which it can't eat the whole thing not even in an entire day.

i used to just cut them into smaller pieces but that kind of defeats the purpose of the shell to dull the teeth down. i also used to just reuse the shrimp. feed it an entire shrimp and what it doesn't eat i save in the freezer for the next day but not sure if thats even healthy in general. going to try cutting the shrimp in half or mid way kind of like easy peel shrimp and see how that works out.

 

[Celbrise]

tried formula one pellets it didn't like those none of my fish did. even the freeze dried krill they won't eat.

 

[Scott.h]

I have an eel so sometimes before I feed the eel I offer it some shrimp. I hold the shrimp with tweasers and let him nibble at it. He'd eat out of my hands but they have teeth so. I've never used the formula one pellets. Only the frozen formula one cubes, which I break off bb sized pieces. All my fish will eat that. I've never had issues with the teeth, but they constantly pick at critters on the rock so maybe that has some to do with keeping them filed down.

 

[Celbrise]

i'll try feeding it more hard foods see what happens. maybe soak it in the garlic stuff see if that works.

 

[Celbrise]

so i cut the shrimp in half length wise then i quartered it so it was just 4 pieces and my puffer went at it. might try just feeding this way for a while. maybe it had a hard time eating because i wouldn't thaw the shrimp out just toss it in frozen.

 

[Scott.h]

Maybe. I thaw mine first.

 

[Celbrise]

yea i'll try thawing it out from now on. people told me before it's okay to just throw it in frozen. i just restocked my tank today so hopefully there is not much waste