A new Figure 8 Puffer fish...?

Question

Today I bought a Figure 8 puffer, aquarium salt, and freeze-dried bloodworms.The puffer lives in a 2 gallon tank, and seems happy in it. I wanted to know whether or not freeze-dried bloodworms are right for it. The guy working at Petco said it was fine, and the Puffer shows interest in the worms. Thanks for any help.

Answer 1

No, those aren't a good food, at least not as a primary food, they'd be okay occasionally, or tank size. Puffers need to eat hard and meaty foods, so they should be getting things like krill or shrimp (with the shells on), and occasional snails so that it can keep it's beak trimmed. If the beak grows too long, the fish can't feed properly and will die.

When your puffer is an adult, it will be about 3" long, so it will need a tank closer to 15-20 gallons at least. Since all puffers are sensitive to ammonia and nitrite, you should have used a tank that was already cycled, not one just set up. Ammonia, which is produced by their wastes, is highly toxic to them, so you;ll need to be doing lots of water changes to keep the ammonia and nitrite (another toxic product) down until there are enough bacteria in the tank to convert these to a less harmful compound (nitrate). In a 2 gallon tank, these wastes will build up more quickly than in a larger tank, although he'd be okay in it for a while with frequent water changes. You also want to be careful you don't overfeed your puffer, since extra food = extra wastes (and puffers are excellent beggars for food!).

Answer 2

Copper told ya right. The tank is to small and freeze dried blood worms may not do the trick, they take frozen blood worms much better and also really like small feeders or ghost shrimp.