Starting a dwarf puffer tank

[BedScien]

I'm probably gonna stock a 100L tank with 3 or 4 dwarf puffers

I want to make it planted with a bunch of nice natural-looking rockwork.

What I'd love to do is to have live feeder snails breeding in the tank.

Is this achievable?

Any tips on anything - I'm new to freshwater, dwarf puffers, plants, and aquascaping.

[Pufferpunk]

The DPs would pick at them & probably kill them. Never breed food in the tank with the predators that eat them.

[Welch4]

Dps will definetly eat the snail. As far as aquascaping get your hardscape set. Then add a good planting subtrate and picks the plants you want. I personally recommend aponogeaton ulvaceous for a dp tank. Looks great and the little guys/gals like to hide in the curls of the leaves.

[BedScien]

Great advice, thanks both of you.

I'm actually counting on the DPs eating the snails but I'm also hoping with the right environment they will still be able to reproduce, breeding and laying eggs in plantiful nooks and crannys which I will provide in the rockwork and underneath large pebbles which i will cover some of the substrate in. I also want to let the tank age a little first and get some algae growth for them to feed on.

Do you reckon it'll work?

[gkai]

Do you reckon it'll work?

Doubt it, even with a lot of hiding places puffers are gluttonous and very very efficient snail predators. Small snails have no chances to live long, and even less to reproduce imho...and the babies of larger species will be eaten before they have a chance to grow (even the parents may not be safe). Only possible exception are melanoides, because they will spend most of their time in the substrate, have very hard shells and opercules...but then they will not really be a source of food either...I think the only way to make it work would be a very very large tank with very few puffers, but this is not really practical, somebody tried to have an semi-isolated subtank where snails reproduce, with openings big enough for small snails but too small for puffer...no big advantages compared to a separate snail tank but easier when you go on holidays...the guy reported success (for his 3 weeks holidays)

[BedScien]

Wow that's a neat trick!!
That's what I love about this hobby, there's so much room for improvisation and problem-solving
The main reason I want to keep snails in with the dwarf puffers it's worthwhile for them to keep busy exploring their environment rather than just pacing the tank and waiting to be fed like my current GSP does :/

[bertie 83]

Just remember a snail "reugium" built on to a tank will still produce waste, lots of it. Keep a seperate breeder it's easier. If you are going away chuck in loads of snails after lights out and they have the chance to hide before being hunted

[BedScien]

Yeah I wouldn't wanna mess around with customizing tanks atm cos I've got too much on

Great idea, Bertie! I'll definitely give that a try! Do you reckon that would work as a regular feeding method?

Just chuck some in and then chuck in some more on a night when they are looking hungry?

[bertie 83]

Absolutely, it's a great way to make them hunt for their food. I regularly chuck many in after lights out and don't need to feed them for a few days

[BedScien]

Awesome!! So I presume you have a breeder tank? If so, may I ask how big it is and how much of their diet can it satisfy?

I tried my hand at breeding common pond snails a couple of times but I could never get decent amount of reproduction, even with a decent heater and regular food and water changes.

I'm thinking maybe they were eating each others eggs, as I've heard someone found that their ramshorn snails were doing that. If so I'm thinking maybe if I get a decent bit of java moss growing in there than they might be able to hide their eggs better as well as having a food source which is easy to find and benificial to water quality. Any thoughts? :/

If I try and fail again I guess they can have pest snails when I get time to go to the LFS

Thanks for your help!

[gkai]

I tried my hand at breeding common pond snails a couple of times but I could never get decent amount of reproduction, even with a decent heater and regular food and water changes.

Personally I breed them (physes) in a non heated, non filtered large glass flowerpot...But indeed they do not reproduce enough to feed even a single puffer. No worry, as snails are more like treats in my case. It took a little bit time, but now my dwarf appreciate frozen blood worms. More and more I would say, at first I had to move them with my pincers to get him interrested but now he is quick on them, pick them on the free floating or on the ground/leaves, and stop eating only with a large rounded belly.
I expect most will too, jumping on live blood worms immediately and accepting frozen ones after a one week training at most. I would not worry too much about overgrowing teeth, carinotetraodon species (dwarf and red eyes) seems immune, or nearly so. My dwarf do not crunch the shell when eating even small snails anyway, they attack the body and tear it out...

I wonder if the reason so many dwarf need a "training period" to eat frozen food is not partially because when introduced in the tank, they have enough rogue snails to hunt...so they are not really interested in other food.

[BedScien]

Haha love the glass flowerpot idea. I've had an improvised breeding tank out of a (well washed) salt bucket with a pane of glass from an busted old scanner as a lid. Worked for producing snails as a rare treat but the way I had it set up was frustrating for water changes.

This time round, I'm going to go on RTR's advice from another thread which is to treat a breeder tank as carefully as one would any other hobby tank and also take someone's advice to let it get established for a few months - i'd like for the live snails to make up at least 90-95% of the puffers diet like RTR does. I'm also gonna plumb it into the main tank's water change system.

[bertie 83]

I keep snails in various tanks. 90l snail breeder which produces tonnes! 2 other 90l tropical tanks with fish ( snails are caretakers until eaten lol) I also have a 150l ish pond in my garden just for monstrous snail production in summer and a massive boost to tank snail population for the winter before all freezes over. I never throw all my eggs into one basket

[BedScien]

I keep snails in various tanks. 90l snail breeder which produces tonnes! 2 other 90l tropical tanks with fish ( snails are caretakers until eaten lol) I also have a 150l ish pond in my garden just for monstrous snail production in summer and a massive boost to tank snail population for the winter before all freezes over. I never throw all my eggs into one basket

Smart!! I'm hoping I can get enough yield from a 50l which sits under my main tank. I'm trying to make my whole setup reasonably portable and not to messy as I'm probably going to be relocating in about half a years time and may be living as a tenant of sorts - but wherever I'm going, puffer fish WILL be coming with me . I don't wanna completely sacrifice my hobbies for practicality - Life is short and fragile.

[hadla]

I never throw all my eggs into one basket

:0 don't break them!!! XD

Also, expect to have a hard time choosing just a few dps lol I know how hard it is to not leave with all of them ._.