How to get a Green Spotted Puffer Fish to eat Ghost Shrimp

**kattastorphy** · 02-28-2013, 06:03 PM

I have two GSP's in my tank I have had them for over 3 months and are living in brackish water along with a pleco. Anyways, they have been healthy and come up the tank when hungry. Yesterday I skipped the feeding and bought them some ghost shrimp. My littliest GSP (Puffer) snapped at the Ghost Shrimp but when the Ghost shrimp jumped my puffer swam off. The big GSP (Cheetah) is not even interested in the Ghost Shrimp. How do I get them to realize they are food and to eat them? I bought a lot and put them in my snail breeding tank so I would really like them to eat them so I am not stuck with 20+ Ghost shrimp. Any advice would be very very helpful. Thank you :)

P.s. My tank is fine and fish are healthy, they are in a 40 Gallon tank till my GSP get bigger then I already have a 100 gallon tank but waiting till they are bigger since Cheetah is berly 2 inches and Pleco is about the same size.)

**fishyboy1** · 02-28-2013, 06:32 PM

Leave the shrimp in there long enough with no other food offerings and the gsp will soon find the shrimp tatsy if not especially nutritious. there is almost zero nutritional value to a ghost shrimp for puffers,they need snails. Plecs do not belong in brack conditions.

**talldutchie** · 02-28-2013, 08:46 PM

Originally Posted by kattastorphy

I have two GSP's in my tank I have had them for over 3 months and are living in brackish water along with a pleco. Anyways, they have been healthy

Which probably cannot be said for the "pleco". I don't know which of the 1200 species of loricariidae you have but I don't think any of them are happy in brackish. Some of them are really resilient though.

and come up the tank when hungry. Yesterday I skipped the feeding and bought them some ghost shrimp. My littliest GSP (Puffer) snapped at the Ghost Shrimp but when the Ghost shrimp jumped my puffer swam off. The big GSP (Cheetah) is not even interested in the Ghost Shrimp. How do I get them to realize they are food and to eat them? I bought a lot and put them in my snail breeding tank so I would really like them to eat them so I am not stuck with 20+ Ghost shrimp. Any advice would be very very helpful. Thank you :)
)

Not really their typical food. If you insist, leave them in until the fish go hungry.

**genocidex** · 02-28-2013, 09:27 PM

i would continue to feed them their normal food, eventually they might find the shrimp to be no threat and chomp them away. but the snails is your best bet for food. they are slow and dont react violently light the shrimp do... and the puffers really need the shell to grind the beak.

also to not in your snail tank, make sure theres enough calcium in the tank water. this is crucial if you are using them for food for the puffer. would also be a good idea to keep the snails in similar water conditions as the puffers. so the dont die from shock. if you need to add some calcium think about adding a wedge of cuttle bone into the filter. you find it in the bird section and it worked great with my RCS and all the snail breeders love the stuff. its super cheap too