puffers need hard foods?

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popcorn1

Feeder Fish
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Feb 7, 2008
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do all puffers have to be fed shells and hard foods to wear down their growing beaks. im thinking about getting a freshwater puffer but i dont want to constantly have to get snails and crustaceans and clean up the broken shell pieces.
are there any fresh water puffers that dont need the wearing down of their beaks.
 
No, not that I am aware of. I think you are making it out to be a bigger deal then it really is though. Get some free snail from your LFS once or twice a month and youll be fine.
 
The only ones I heard about that dont need hard shelled foods frequently were the dwarf puffers. But like stated, you can get snails for free from just about any LFS....
 
even if they are free think about all shell pieces that accumulate at the bottom. life would be so much easier for a puffer keeper if they took soft foods or someone created an alternate for shell foods.
 
Well....a puffer might not be the fish for you, b/c they are messy eaters, and will have shell pieces all around the tank. Good Luck to ya....
 
Nothing wrong with leaving the shells in there. I agree, a puffer is not the fish for you. they are a lot more work than most fish.
 
are there alternatives to hard shell foods? crunchy foods made specifically for puffers? just wondering. really want a puffer but dont want nothing to do with snails or shells.
 
i dont know of any hard food other than shells.
puffers are messy,require more care than some fish and need shells to wear down their teeth.
you could always breed snails...
 
You can leave the snail shell in there... I haven't fed snails to my puffers in years though--there are many other hard-shelled foods to feed them. Those shells should be removed though, as there may be bits of meat left on them. They're all in that list in the article I linked you to above.

Puffers are more difficult to care for than most fish, because of their feeding requirements & also with their messy eating habits, they need more care to keep their water clean. If you're the lazy sort (not wanting to clean up shells), then 50% weekly water changes may not be your bag either.
 
when i had my fahaka i fed it a fiddler or crayfish once or twice a week. it was pretty fun and crawfish around here aren't too expansive. less than $2. you could also go catch some in a nearby creek, but you'll need to quarantine it, but some say this is a big risk cuz who knows what's been in the crawfish. i know some other ppl who feed their puffers muscles and oysters too.
 
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