Porcupine Puffer only accepting live feeders

[teddymoos]

I purchased a 9" puffer fish from my LFS. Never has taken any clams on the half shell. His tank mate is a lion fish and I know that they need live feeders at first. However to my surprise the puffer ate most of the feeders. that's the only thing I have seen him eat so far. Any suggestions on how to fix this issue? thanks

 

[BeltedCoyote]

Not an expert on larger puffers..

But perhaps you could slowly shift from live foods, to incapacitated live foods and so on so that the puffer is slowly taught to associate non-moving food items as tasty?

also, at @ReefSquad (let’s get better knowledge in here)

 

[ichthyogeek]

How're the puffers teeth? You can always buy fresh live clams and such, and see if the puffer will go after them. If it's going after the feeders, seems to me that he's hungry, and might be sight oriented. So if you skewer a shrimp or something and wave it around, the puffer might go after it too!

 

[lion king]

Use a feeding stick with chunks of various seafood to see what he may take. You can use a rigid airline tube that you can pick up at any lfs. Angle cut one end to make it easier to pierce and secure chunks. Start with shrimp; tuna, salmon, and scallop are other choices. Move it around a bit to illicate a response.

What type of lionfish and do you have him eating.

 

[ReefHog]

That's a large puffer. Afraid to ask what size tank you have him in. Hope you have exceptional filtration. Absolutely do not need live feeders. Fish are not a puffers natural food and will not sustain him long term. It also encourages him to look at other fish in the tank as food. Crabs, shrimp, clams, things that creep around on the rock would be the natural food choice. I would start off with some large Krill on feeding tongs so you can get it in front of him to wiggle it around. Eventually he will accept raw shrimp, clam, squid, even nori sheets. Once you have him eating the proper foods, unless he bites live rock, you will have to feed him in a way that he grinds his teeth down. Most people use clams on the half shell. I use custom tweezers I made as I don't like all the shell fragments all over my sand bed.

 

[xtian]

Use to feed an antenna lionfish live food but would also use frozen food tied on a fishing line and sway that around. Eventually started eating it by just dumping it in the tank. Can prob try it with this fella.