Puffer food recipes

[Pescador]

Does anyone have any puffer food recipes they can share? He's not to picky and eats mysis, pellets, and fresh seafood but I want to make sure it's balanced.

[my2rotties]

I make puffer food

- One large bag of prawns or shrimp
- 2 bags of the seafood medley (cuttlefish, scallops, clams, mussels, octopus etc)
- 1 bag of squid if it is whole squid I clean and remove the ink form them or the food turns purple
- a handful of silversides
- Kent garlic concentrate several eye droppers full
- Selcon several eye droppers full
- RO water enough to not fry the blender

I thaw it all out, and rinse with RO water. I leave the skin on the shrimp but remove the tails.

Throw it in the blender and add water until it turns into a paste, and I can smell the motor in the blender frying. You will need to add water a little bit at a time or it will burn out your blender. Your wife will love you!!!

I put it into ziplock bags and freeze it. When it is frozen I cut it into cubes. When I feed my puffer will eat the entire cube and blow the tidbits out of his gills. While this goes down all my other fish are around him like vultures and eats what he blows out. I have very little waste and bioload on my tank since I have started feeding him this food. All my other fish go nuts for this food as well, and my cleaner wrasse and copperband butterfly are in there like sharks.

My puffer has become a beautiful dark beige colour with copper coloured stripes and nice black dots. He used to be almost white when he came home. He is the fattest and happiest puffer I have ever seen. He has no ich like he used to have all the time, and his eyes are clear and bright. He does not touch my little chromis or and shrimp that live in my tank. Even my cleaner wrasse comes and cleans him with no issues.

I swear upon his food and it is good for all of my fish. The food is a pain to make but it is well worth the trouble. I see puffers at the LFS and none look as healthy and robust as my Griffie.

[michika]

Mmm burning blender...a sadly familiar smell in our house.

[my2rotties]

HAHAA we should go to costco and get some new ones... show me your new friend over there too:lol:

I have managed to get three more batches out of my blender but it keeps getting slower and slower... i doubt I will get another one.

Mmm burning blender...a sadly familiar smell in our house.

[Pescador]

Fantastic
Thanks!

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Personally I don't use the blender for puffer food (just for the tangs food) because it gets way too fine and small for them IMO. I prefer to feed them larger chunks that they have to bite into and that also makes much less of a mess.

This is what mine looked like:

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r179/Justinpsmith/Digi019.jpg

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r179/Justinpsmith/Digi020.jpg

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r179/Justinpsmith/Digi023.jpg

They would get one of these bags a day...Most people under feed their puffers. If you ever get a chance to see them while diving, you will be amazed at how 'fat' they are.

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r179/Justinpsmith/Digi025.jpg

[my2rotties]

I tried feeding like GSP did, since he was my mentor and adviser on taking care of Griffie properly. I found that whole pieces would just get left on the sand bed and rot there if he dropped them. If the food hit the sand he would not eat it. I had chunks of seafood every where.

Whatever food my puffer blows out his gills is quickly eaten up by everybody else. They wait for him, and then come in like a school of piranha to eat it up. Whatever does not get consumed goes into my overflows into my filter socks which I change daily. I find the way I do it to be easier for me and better for the overall health of my system. My tank is very deep and I cannot get chunks of uneaten food out from under rocks. The food that is not eaten by my fish gets picked up and taken away by my power heads...

[es355lucille]

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r179/Justinpsmith/Digi023.jpg


Yummy! remind me never to eat at anyones place that owns a puffer!!!

You guys just keep your puffer grub to yourselves!

Just kidding.....I could not resist!!

[my2rotties]

Haha it's all human grade food and still is when it leaves the blender... I have used our own stuff when I run out of Griffie's;

I think you and Sahron should come over for some seafood pasta:wink:

http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r179/Justinpsmith/Digi023.jpg


Yummy! remind me never to eat at anyones place that owns a puffer!!!

You guys just keep your puffer grub to yourselves!

Just kidding.....I could not resist!!

[spoot]

My puffers preffer large chunks too so I avoid the blender. Really, unless there are filter feeders in the tank, it just creates way to much small debris that doesn't get eaten. I feed mine frozen seafood (over 10 varieties), freshwater snails, crayfish, and frozen vegies. They eat just about anything.

[my2rotties]

I accidentally discovered Griffie (my puffer) preferred frozen cubes when I put a couple of entire cubes of squid/mysis out for the rest of my fish. He prefers frozen cubes, and I find it more easier for my system to blend and add supplements to his food and freeze it. I do not have much waste at all since the other fish gobble up what comes out of his gills. I find my copperband butterfly and cleaner wrasse go crazy over it as well as my aussie and banana wrasses, angels and almost everybody else. In the end I find it is less harsh on my bioload and I have no chunks of shrimp or other seafood on the sand.

Griffie was tough to feed at first and now he will eat forever. People come in are awestruck about how much this guy can pack down in a serving. I stop before he wants me to stop.

I guess it goes to show fish do have personalities and like or dislike things many other fish may or may not eat. I add his supplements right into the blender so it does not wash off while it is floating and he has benefited from it as well as all my other fish.

For my guys, this is the only way I will feed them and it works for us. I never have debris on the bottom of my tank feeding this way like I did with the conventional method.