Ghost shrimp

[The Fisherman]

Hi,
I was wondering, do ghost shrimp have a hard enough shell to keep the growth of a F8's teeth down?


thanks

[RTR]

They certainly do help, but may not do the job if they are the only crunch in the diet.

[perek]

Just pop in a few ramshorn snails from time to time and you will be aight

[The Fisherman]

I am currently in the process of fixing ( filter busted) , and converting my eclipse system 6 to a sandbeded snail spawner.

I tryed the thing from puffer.co.uk , but i still havent gotten baby snails and ive had them for like 5 months, and i think its kinda mean to keep 3 (ramshorns) of them in a little container, so im moving them in there.
There will also be a red-eyed tetra in with them, to keep the mess down a bit.( he was a fish left over from when the tank was up and running, then the filter broke and 5 out of the 6 fish died, so im temporarily moving him to a different tank while i convert the tank)

[Kathy]

Hi everyone,

My F8, Sam, doesn't eat snails. I have tried and tried, and he just ignores them and they die pretty quickly in the brackish water. I don't think he realizes that they are food.

I try to feed him a variety and as many crunchy things as I can. I am concerned that he might not be getting enough crunch to keep his teeth trim. The crunchies I feed are all live food- meal worms, ghost shrimp, krickets, and beatles and june bugs that I catch around the home.

Is this sufficient? If not, how do I get him interested in snails?

[Pufferpunk]

How big are the snails? Try crushing the snails a bit, so he can get at the meat.

[Kathy]

I have tried all sizes of snails. Mainly the little "nuisance" snails you can get from the LFS for free, but also other snails. I haven't tried crushing them. If I did would he smell them?

I think because they don't move much, and because they sink, he doesn't recognize them as food.

[Jayhawk]

I'm guessing it's the smell, but crushing a snail may well help your puffer learn they're food (I agree fully with PP on this tactic).

My figure 8 always knew they were food, but my DPs had to be taught that snails were food (by crushing the first few...and any that were simply too large).

Eric

[Kathy]

Thanks!

I'll try it!

[K4tsujink3n]

I have tried all sizes of snails. Mainly the little "nuisance" snails you can get from the LFS for free, but also other snails. I haven't tried crushing them. If I did would he smell them?

I think because they don't move much, and because they sink, he doesn't recognize them as food.

Agreed with PP, but I also wanted to give a little warning about the LFS snails ... particularly MTS. They can be too hard for your puffer's teeth, sometimes chipping or breaking them. You probably already know this, but just being safe!

Good luck with the snails!

[Eldonko]

Yah my puffers prefer me to squish the snails before dropping em in. Seems they are too lazy to break the snails open themselves

[susiejames101]

Mine likes her bigger snails semi crushed too , although she will have a go at the really litlte ones. I end up with a lot of biggies in my snail tank and don't like to waste them so am hapopy to give them to her crushed, I do try and make sure she eats the little ones first though as she can get a little bit lazy lol
Sue

[Tihsho]

All my puffs just seem to eat it straight out of the shell. They do all the work themselves...

[RTR]

I've had a lot of new puffs which do not at first recognize our favored FW snail species as food. Those I am perfectly will to "train" by crushing. Once they get the concept and especially after they are large enough to crush their own, they all graduate to DIY dinner. I dump them in the tank, they eat.

[creampuff]

My irrubesco, small as it is seemed to recognize the snail almost immediately as food. It had to compete with a few nuisance ghost shrimp in the tank for the snail though, but I'm happy to report that he managed to conquer it. Thank goodness. I don't find the idea of crushing snails very appealing...