Food for dogface puffer?

[sappho]

I know puffers tend to hunt invertebrates in the sand and I was wondering if there was something I could put in my aquarium for her to hunt? Would she go after copepods? Are there some other invertebrates that would thrive on their own in the aquarium setting?

[cougareyes]

I'm not sure what you are trying to accomplish, dogface puffers are like the puppy dogs of the aquarium. I hand feed mine, they eat urchins in the wild, my urchin will be right on the glass in front of her face and she's begging me for food. They aren't picky and don't really need live food to thrive and live a long life in the home aquarium.

[scooter31707]

It's a part of nature, but you can try to keep it well feed, but don't overfeed. You can provide it some shell shrimp, clams, and mussels it will do just fine.

[ThRoewer]

I would get up early and hunt down some garden snails - they are a very good food for pufferfish. Earthworms are a great pufferfish food as well.
If you have an Asian grocery store with a good seafood department you could also feed live crabs or shrimp once in a while.

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[saf1]

I'm not sure what you are trying to accomplish, dogface puffers are like the puppy dogs of the aquarium. I hand feed mine, they eat urchins in the wild, my urchin will be right on the glass in front of her face and she's begging me for food. They aren't picky and don't really need live food to thrive and live a long life in the home aquarium.

Not my thread but I never knew that was one of their sources of food. I actually ran across a dogface this past week while diving and there was a metric ton of urchins. All types of them, long spine, short, thick. I don't know the various types but lots of them abound.

[ThRoewer]

I kind of doubt that they eat urchins other than in an opportunistic fashion - their anatomy isn't particularly well suited for that (eyes too close to the mouth). They are rather feeding of all kinds of crustaceans. Their primary food are most likely crabs - that's what their anatomy and maneuverability is perfect for.

The fish that are specialized in eating urchins, especially long spined urchins, are the trigger fish (with the possible exception of the Xanthichthys species).