cool little system going

[marksrush]

I stumbled on this self-sustaining puffer feeding system quite by accident, but it's really cool how it's worked out (at least I think so). I figured out what was going on because I was wondering why my modestus was so full all the time, way more than he should've been if all he was eating was what I had been feeding him, and also he stopped begging. Upon taking a closer look at his tank, I discovered one whole corner of the tank - the corner where he hangs out - was completely covered two or three deep in MTS shells, and I realized what had been going on.

Somewhere along the line, some MTS got into my modestus' tank, probably some real young ones scooped up along with the ramshorns I breed for food. The tank has fine-grained sand as a substrate, which allowed the MTS to escape being eaten. (Lots of live plants, too.) The MTS of course were also able to reproduce this way, too, which they did with gusto evidently, judging by the amount of shells in my puffer's corner. What happens is that the adults stay down in the substrate eating and reproducing, and somewhere along the line many of the young snails migrate up above the sand, where they're picked off by my modestus. I had been wondering why his teeth never have needed trimming, and this is why. So it's a neat little system where the snails reproduce happily and are then happily picked off by my puffer, keeping his teeth trimmed and his belly full. I never see big shells, just small ones, and since the water in this tank is around pH 6, I figure they're not so hard that they'll chip his teeth. Anyway, I thought I'd share this with you all since I'm pleased with my little ecosystem that's been going on for about a year now.

[J-P]

very cool!

I wish my SAPs would do that. Let the shrimp and snails and pick off the babies. Alas it was not meant to be...

[xrayjeeper83]

thats awesome. My Fahaka ignores small snails. I can drop them in right in front of him and he doesnt even pay attention, drop in a bigger snail and he is all over it.

But im having trouble getting my snails to full size for some reason

[Lil' Swimz$]

That's really cool Markrush, so you don't feed at all? That's really cool.

I have a couple red trumpets I see mating alot. I hope I get babies, I only have the three.

[RTR]

Large puffers ignore small snails - Fahakas and T. mbu all ignored smaller snails in my tanks. They migrated into the puffer tanks from the attached veggie filters (all the large puffs had large veggie filters couppled to their tanks). That was handy as It helped provide the massive numbers of snails needed for F-8 longevity studies.

Mine were all common pond and ramshorn snails. I don't trust MTS, so don't use them as puffer food..

[xrayjeeper83]

large veggie filters?

RTR what are your thoughts on apples for a fahaka?

[pufferpuggirl]

I have recently found loads of baby MTS in some of my tanks. Not sure if my puffers are eating them, but I do see my Mbu blowing into the sand alot, so it's possible that he might be eating them.
When I recently moved my shrimp into another tank, I could not believe the amount of baby Malaysian Trumpet snails that were in the filters and on ornaments. Where did they all come from?

[Flutter]

large veggie filters?

RTR what are your thoughts on apples for a fahaka?

Apples are a fruit and not a vegetable so they definitely wouldn't work in this situation.





Alright, that was ridiculously lame but it did take me a second to realize that it was apple snails he/you was/were talking about

[xrayjeeper83]

Flutter at first i was reading that and thinking to myself, there is no way flutter is serious lol.

[Nick]

MTS continually birth tiny clones of themselves from quite a young age. This is why they are so easy to breed.

[RTR]

I will never feed MTS to a puffer. I learned that lesson the hard way.

Apple snails are too big and too slow to breed and too picky about water parameters (GH & KH) and have separate sexes. Too much work for the output.

Large puffers are too easy to feed from the seafood counter to generate in-house food for them. It would be like rearing fish for a cat (feline, not catfish)..

[~reefchik~]

I will never feed MTS to a puffer. I learned that lesson the hard way.

Could you please elaborate? I have just found a bunch of tiny MTS snails in my puffer's tank.

[xrayjeeper83]

MTS shells are really hard and can crack/break a puffers tooth

[J-P]

ditto .. but the issue is.. and maybe Mark is a lucky one, the MTS adults stay in the substrate and the babies feed the puffers. Cone shaped snails should be avoided and Malaysian Trumpet Snails are some of the most common.

It is a theory that RARELY works in practice... To have a viable food source establish itself, sustain itself with the predator in the tank. It didn't work for me (for the most part), and hasn't worked for others. Mark is very lucky with his set up.

In my case, the Puffers decimated my population before they had a chance to "root" themselves in. I still have shrimp and snails lingering about, but not nearly enough to be self sufficient.

[~reefchik~]

MTS shells are really hard and can crack/break a puffers tooth

I'm sure that's true for adult or subadult MTS but these tiny babies have a soft enough shell to crush easily in my fingers, so I would guess they are ok to eat.