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hey im gonna get a figure 8 puffer soon. i was wondering what to feed it, how much, and how often?

live blood worms, live shrimp, live aquatic snails, and etc... feed shrimp and snails weekly, feed worms daily...

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

but how many snails a week?

depends on how big it is, i would say about 10 at a minimum... you might want to start farming pest pond snails or ramshorn snails... also shrimp can be farmed if in the right conditions... 5 shrimp per week... use worms and try prepared foods as staples... the snails and shrimp shells help keep the puffers beaks ground down, other wise it could over grow and injure it self... is the puffer going to be in brackish or saltwater? because i believe they are brackish and eventually fully salt water...

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

actually almost everywhere i've read says that freshwater is the best for puffers. i've even heard that brackish/salt will take years off its life. so im probably gonna go with fresh.
im not a beginner at fish, iim pretty experienced with cichlids but i wanted to try something new. what other advice do u have about them. like water changes and filtration, and just generally anything else.

Do some proper reading.
Freshwater is not good for most puffer species, most at least venture into brackish water (i say most, most that are available commonly).
James

sry bud but i've been askin other people that actually work with fish, and people who work in fish stores too, pretty much everyon a talked to says brakish of freshwater but recomends fresh. they say that they're one o the only kinds of puffer that does good inn only freshwater. maybe u should do sum proper reading too

Oi, none of this please.

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

The debate of freshwater vs brackish water is definitely a controversy with the figure eights. I'd go with whatever they are kept in at the LFS as to avoid having to wean them. I've kept freshwater ones before an found them very ill able to handle stress. Actually most of the ones that are freshwater shipped to my LFS die because of the shipping stress. Though this appears to be common among all the freshwater puffers I've seen, I've haven't seen it with the brackish ones. My personal opinion would be to go with brackish unless you don't think you can keep up with the proper salinity, in which case go with fresh. Overall they are a great fish with HUGE personalities. Good Luck
PS I am a fish person from a fish store and I trust the people on fishprofiles tons more than I do myself

Tetraodon bioccelatus is freshwater, according to Fishbase, citing Rainboth "Fishes of the Cambodian Mekong" and Kottelat et al. "Freshwater fishes of Western Indonesia and Sulawesi".

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

Shini, whilst this is true (dont think i didnt read up here) there is more than just one puffer offered in the aquarium trade, infact as a kid i wanted to try these, unfortunatly they're impossible to find.

Of course there is more than one puffer offered in the aquarium trade, but that doesn't change T. bioccelatus being a fish found in freshwater environments. Granted, fish can be misidentified, but I have not heard of this being an issue with Figure 8 puffers (like it is with Corydoras julii being trilineatus, for example). I admit I'm not all too familiar with puffers, though, so if misidentification is an issue, enlighten me.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.