Schoutedeni spotted Congo puffers new to tank

[PKPuffer]

I just got 4 of these, seem pretty healthy, a couple ride the glass vigorously at times and seem to freak out stressed, I am guessing they are not used to artificial light so have been limiting that.
I’d like to know if anyone has experience with them for getting them to eat well, it can be hit or miss at first. Blood worms seem to get chewed and spat out, then repeat the same thing, don’t think much stays in, also have been giving some cut up cooked prawns (smaller then matane shrimp) they don’t touch it. Have had some ok success with bladder snails. Malaysian trumpets seem to hard for them right now.

tank is pretty heavily planted anybody have succès with feeding any type of raw fish or any other suggestions that have worked would be appreciated!

would love to get them settled and breeding when they are a little bigger and fatten up.

 

[twentyleagues]

Ramshorn, bladder snails, blackworms, ghost shrimp, cherry shrimp, krill and mysis make up my schoutedni menu. It will not touch any fish at all and most won't. I used long tweezers to move the krill around a bit at first, now I just drop it in and she eats it. Snails should make up the majority of the food though.

 

[Raka]

Snails! They rarely have the chance to make it to the bottom of the tank before they are swooped up. Also very easy to setup a 5gal snail colony that will make more snails than you'll have mouths for after a couple months.

As for the pacing, lots of hides and decor. Our Figure 8 rarely paces after the addition of a nice cave. He generally is asleep on the sand in there, looking for snails around the tank, or begging for food, rare to see pacing.

 

[twentyleagues]

If they are really new to tank life you may need to cut back on the lighting for a short time.

 

[PKPuffer]

Ramshorn, bladder snails, blackworms, ghost shrimp, cherry shrimp, krill and mysis make up my schoutedni menu. It will not touch any fish at all and most won't. I used long tweezers to move the krill around a bit at first, now I just drop it in and she eats it. Snails should make up the majority of the food though.

I have a small tank with Malaysian trumpets, pond snails and rams horn snails, was thinking of trying to get a colony of apple snails going but I read they should be separate from at least pond and rams horn snails. Any thoughts on that?
Also I’m in Canada and we can’t get general cure or any good meds for deworming, how bad is that if it’s not done?

 

[PKPuffer]

If they are really new to tank life you may need to cut back on the lighting for a short time.

Imported from Africa and here for 10 days before I received them

 

[twentyleagues]

Deworming is pretty crucial.
Mts is a no go too hard.
I have found keeping multiple types of snails in a breeding type setup is bad news. They will predate on each other's eggs. While my puffer will eat either ramshorn's or bladder/pond snails she likes the latter best. My guess is they are the easier to eat. I tried mud crab claws she wanted nothing to do with those. I don't think it was a frozen thing as she will eat frozen krill and jumbo mysis without a thought. I also tried small frozen clams also a no go after a few test pokes.

 

[MVURO]

i would watch out with MTS, their shells are to hard for them, and the could possible break their beaks/teeth.
and if i where you i would just deworm them, most wild ones have some paracites.

and also keep a look at them for possible ich,


good luck mate!

 

[jjohnwm]

I'm in Canada so I know what you mean about the lack of fish medications. I have tried using a puppy de-wormer (piperazine) on a single occasion to treat Camallanus worms in some quarantine fish. It seemed to be effective, although one case isn't definitive. It's available at PetSmart, in liquid form. I soaked freeze-dried foods (both tubifex and brine shrimp) in it until well-saturated, then fed. The fish still found the food palatable, and subsequent vacuuming revealed plenty of dead or paralyzed adult worms on the bottom. Repeated this 2 more times, spaced 10-days apart. No further sign of Camallanus that I can see...but the fish are still in quarantine now, 4 months later, mostly so that I can easily keep an eye on them.

This stuff is apparently effective on roundworms only.

 

[PKPuffer]

Deworming is pretty crucial.
Mts is a no go too hard.
I have found keeping multiple types of snails in a breeding type setup is bad news. They will predate on each other's eggs. While my puffer will eat either ramshorn's or bladder/pond snails she likes the latter best. My guess is they are the easier to eat. I tried mud crab claws she wanted nothing to do with those. I don't think it was a frozen thing as she will eat frozen krill and jumbo mysis without a thought. I also tried small frozen clams also a no go after a few test pokes.

So bladder/pond snails and rams horn should not be together?