# transitioning from live food -- Pea Puffer edition



## inuudo (Sep 23, 2012)

Eleanor Rigby, my Pea Puffer, is a snails-only kind of girl. I have tried feeding her frozen bloodworm and have seen her take a nibble or two but that's always followed with a reproachful look like I've tricked her into eating a booger. 

I can get pond snails from PetSmart somewhat regularly and I have Malaysian Trumpet snails, although she's sharing them with the assassin snails and the numbers have dropped dramatically. I really would like to transition her to something other than live food (partly because it will be easier for me and partly because I will need to re-home her at some point in the next couple of months and I think it will make her more appealing to a potential new owner).

So what's the process? Is it as simple as just not feeding her anything but frozen bloodworms for awhile until she gets hungry enough to accept them every time? Should I alternate feeding live snails and frozen bloodworms? Something else entirely?

BTW I don't want to wean her completely from snails -- I just want to have her diet be less dependent on them than it is now.

She's alone in a 5.5 gallon planted tank right now if that makes any difference.


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## Master wilkins (Dec 10, 2012)

Being a puffer, she will never lose her taste for snails. My method is to just not feed the desired food at all until my fish are eating what im trying to give them for at least a week. 

Its really simple, just dont feed them what they are wanting. They arent going to starve themselves if theres food in the tank. She'll be hungry enough eventually.


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## Durogity (Jun 10, 2013)

Master wilkins said:


> Being a puffer, she will never lose her taste for snails. My method is to just not feed the desired food at all until my fish are eating what im trying to give them for at least a week.
> 
> Its really simple, just dont feed them what they are wanting. They arent going to starve themselves if theres food in the tank. She'll be hungry enough eventually.


This has worked on fish and stubborn children for centuries lol


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## jhj0112 (Jul 30, 2013)

what I do is to grab few frozen bloodworms with a tweezer and wiggle them in the water.. my 2 puffers love them chasing worms and almost hunting them. I have never fed them with snails yet.. lol I'm afraid that thye won't eat bloodworms once they know how yummy snail is!  I'm also waiting for cone feeder that one Of LFSs ordered. other pea puffer keepers say cone feeder really works.


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## Master wilkins (Dec 10, 2012)

jhj0112 said:


> what I do is to grab few frozen bloodworms with a tweezer and wiggle them in the water.. my 2 puffers love them chasing worms and almost hunting them. I have never fed them with snails yet.. lol I'm afraid that thye won't eat bloodworms once they know how yummy snail is!  I'm also waiting for cone feeder that one Of LFSs ordered. other pea puffer keepers say cone feeder really works.


Snails arent just a favorite food for puffers, they also serve a very valuable function as a tooth file. Puffers teeth grow constantly and as such need constant trimming or they will grow so much that the puffer wont be able to eat. The hard shells do this for free. I hope you are feeding them something with a shell or at the very least trimming them manually.


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## jhj0112 (Jul 30, 2013)

As far as I understand, pea puffer is the only puffer species that does not require to trim their teeth.. they actually take the snail out of the shell, not eating shell all together.. please correct me on this if I'm wrong.


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## Canadian731 (Jun 25, 2013)

jhj0112 said:


> As far as I understand, pea puffer is the only puffer species that does not require to trim their teeth.. they actually take the snail out of the shell, not eating shell all together.. please correct me on this if I'm wrong.


This is true, they do not require snails to keep their teeth in check


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## inuudo (Sep 23, 2012)

Yes, I've never seen mine eat the shell. The bottom of her tank is littered with empty shells. Even the tiniest ramshorn snails get slurped out of the shell.

Thank you everyone for the advice.


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## Master wilkins (Dec 10, 2012)

Well you learn something new every day, I had no idea.


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## inuudo (Sep 23, 2012)

UPDATE: Hooray! She eagerly ate a few frozen bloodworms today! I used the tweezer method. I've been feeding her one small snail per day for the past few days -- she usually gets 3-5 small snails -- so I guess she was hungry.


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## jhj0112 (Jul 30, 2013)

very nice!


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