My puffer fish?

Question

1. What do puffer fish-the fish that puff up when they are mad- eat? they wont eat the food i give them - Tetra care
2. Do fishes tails or whatever they are grow bak? My new puffer fish ate my gold fishes tails!

Answer 1

Puffers need to be in a tank by themselves. Fin nipping is part of their normal behavior, and the puffer will continue to do this as long as there are other fish in the tank. The goldfish's tail will grow back, as long as there isn't damage to the body where the tail comes out (and this will happen if you leave them together).

Overall, this is a bad pairing for a number of reasons. The fish require very different temperatures - the puffer should have tropical temperatures (will need a heater), but goldfish are coolwater species. You don't say what species of puffer you have, but if it's anything other than a dwarf puffer, it will need to have some salt in it's water - sometimes up to marine conditions, if it's a green spotted puffer. Goldfish produce a lot of wastes, and puffers are very sensitive to the ammonia and nitrite the goldfish will produce.

Puffers need meaty food (shrimp, clams, mussels, fish) plus some hard items like snails, shrimp with the shell on, cockles to keep their teeth trimmed down. If the teeth get too long, this can keep the puffer from closing his mouth properly, and he won't be able to eat (and eventually die).

You need to find out what specific conditions your puffer will need to survive, and find more appropriate foods for him to eat. See the links below for help on identification and care:

Answer 2

Puffer Fish Fins

Answer 3

Depends on what kind of puffer you have. We have dwarf puffers who eat live blackworms, frozen bloodworms, live daphnia, live scuds, live white worms, live grindals, live brine shrimp (as a snack only, not enough nutrition in adult brines for fish), snails. Some people get theirs to eat chopped up mussels and clams but mine won't (they're spoiled). Bigger puffers need other foods like live ghost shrimp. Check out the forum link below; those guys keep all kinds of puffers and can give you the lowdown on everything pufferwise.

Answer 4

Your puffer will continue to eat your goldfish's tail until the goldfish dies of a secondary infection. Puffers will not eat prepared foods (flakes or granules). They must have a steady diet of snails to keep their teeth trimmed. They will also tear up some ghost shrimp and blood worms. Please separate your puffer, and find out what species you have. Most likely it is a brackish species and will not live long without a decent amount of salt.

Answer 5

Was the beach at a lake or at the sea? If a lake was it brackish or fresh water? What country? That does not look like a Green Spotted Puffer to me at all. It would make it a little easier for us to identify it if we knew those few things.

Answer 6

My puffer fish eats brine shrimp, bloodworms, and snails-to help keep his teeth short. When I first put him in the tank, he tried to nip at my other fish, but then one of my bigger fish, went after him, and scared him a little bit. I felt sorry for him, but he didn't get hurt, and he doesn't bother the other fish anymore. Everyone gets along nicely now.

Answer 7

OMG please tell me it is a fresh water puffer!!!! Most puffer fish are carniverous and don't eat flakes. He is hungry that is why he is biting off the tails of the other fish, and they are naturally agressive. Try bloodwarms (they do sell frozen cubes if you don't want to deal with live ones.

The goldfish tails should grow back.

Answer 8

You should feed your puffer freeze dried blood worms and freeze dried shrimps or krill, plus frozen and live brine shrimp, live Ghost Shrimp, and an occasional treat of a few live Black Worms
yes the do like to bite other fishes' tails

Answer 9

Dwarf Puffers are definitely not community fish and are best kept in a small species setup. Some people do keep them in larger community tanks with success, but it is not recommended. Dwarves are vicious little critters and will nip the fins off just about any other fish. They are capable of killing tank mates much larger than themselves with their relentless picking and nipping. Also, their small size can cause them to be eaten by larger fish. If you're going to keep dwarves, plan to provide them with their very own tank. There are a few tank mates that can be successfully kept with dwarves, though, and are worth mentioning: Otocinclus - Known as "otos", Shrimp - It's basically a gamble with shrimp. Dwarf puffers can be easy to feed as well as difficult. Some of them are still collected from the wild (though most aren't), so getting them to accept prepared foods can be a chore. Others, however, will eat just about anything you put in front of them. The best way is to try various foods and see what works. Please note that it is common for them to not want to eat for the first few days you have them in your tank. They will eventually come out of their shyness and begin to eat, though.

Frozen Foods - Bloodworms (midge fly larva - probably 90% of Dwarf Puffer owners use these as the main meal for their pets), Brine Shrimp, Mysis Shrimp, Daphnia, Tubifex Worms, Glass Worms (mosquito larva), and Krill. Remember that when feeding frozen food to your puffers, you should always thaw it before putting it into the tank. A great way to do this is to put the food, along with some water from the tank, in a small cup or shot glass. Then you can pour the food into the tank when it's thawed. Also, pouring the food through a brine shrimp net or other fine-meshed net will remove a lot of the extra "junk", causing less unnecessary pollution in the tank (thanks to RTR for that tip).

Live Foods - Blackworms (commonly available, will stay alive in the refrigerator for a few weeks), Brine Shrimp and Snails. (Note: Brine shrimp are lacking in nutritional value and should not be a staple food source, but instead a treat)


Snails - Dwarf Puffers are molluscivores just like many of their relatives and should have snails in their diet. Not only are they a natural food for the puffers, but they also help them practice their hunting skills. Most snails are too large for them to "crunch" in the manner that other puffers do, but they will definitely take on a snail of any size. Regular pond snails are best because they have thinner shells and they are easier for the puffs to get to. As far as Dwarf Puffers needing snails in their diet to "wear down" their teeth, it has been agreed upon by most in the forum that they are not necessary for this. Dwarf Puffers seem to have no problems at all with overgrown teeth (unlike almost all other puffer species).

As for feeding the snails to them, all you have to do is drop them in the tank.... the puffers will hunt them on their own (quite fun to watch). They stick their head into the shell and start thrashing around. It looks like a dog with its head stuck in a cardboard box!

Make sure to give them snails every now and then as a treat. Your local fish store will usually give snails to you for free, or you can raise your own. Two great articles on raising snails for puffers can be found here and here.


Flakes, Pellets and Freeze-Dried Foods - While some people have had limited success with these types of foods, the majority have not. The dwarves will usually completely ignore these. If flakes are taken, they should not be a staple food source as they are lacking in nutritional value.

Answer 10

you need to seperate that puffer from the other fish.i had a cute little dwarf puffer fish and it ate the fins off of all the other fish in the tank.they are just naturally agressive.and it depends on what fish you have on whether their fins will grow back.i have a betta,two platys,and one albino cory cat and none of their fins grew back :(