GSP and snails

[wonger]

Hey guys.. I just picked up 2 GSPs from my LFS.

I am planning on putting them into my work tank. Right now I have a bunch of shellies in there which im going to move out. The GSPs are going into a 5 gallon to quarantine for a week.

My question is, in most of my tanks, I keep ALOT of malaysian trumpet snails, they keep the tank clean and I never see any fish poop. I know MTS are bad for all puffers. But is there a way I can keep some MTS in the tank as a clean up crew? There are soo many that even if I try to take them all out.. im sure there are more under the sand. Or should I completely get rid of the substrate and add new sand?

Thanks for the advice.

[jimi]

i doubt you can keep them both wiht out the snacking and if they chip a tooth it will be bad also there is stuff out there that can kill snails that i have heard different results and i think changing out your sand will probably kill the ability to hold the puffers bioload

[wonger]

well.. I guess I can take out snails everyday for a week or so until I move them in. All I have to do is throw in food and all the MTS snails pop up.

[jimi]

yeah but mts are live breeding snails and are almost impossible to kill unless you use alot of salt but then you have rotting snails i would use a snailicide some where before you pop in your puffers

[wonger]

I actually have over filtration in this tank. What if I removed all the sand.. put in some argonite? Its a 20 gallon with an Aquaclear 20, and Aquaclear 70, and a sponge filter haha. I put all this in, because I have a colony of about 50+ multis in this tank. Will the bacteria in the filters be enough if I replaced all the sand?

[jimi]

might be possible but a 20 gallon isnt enough room for 2 gsps its enough for a temp tank of an babay one maybe

[zombiefetus]

The two GSPs would need at least a 55gallon tank (preferably a 60-65). And I don't think they'll survive a week in a 5gallon tank, even if they do, they'll be in bad shape, it's not a good idea. If you have nothing else in a larger tank then there's no reason to put them in a 5gallon for any amount of time.

[wonger]

They are in my 5 gallon quarantine tank. Its not their permanent home.

[Pufferpunk]

In a nswe to your Q, yes you can change over your substrate to aragonite. Any missed baby snail's shell will be soft enough for the puffers to crunch on.

[BobRivers]

I have lots of MTS and have been feeding them to my GSP I crush the shell before I put them in and he greedily munches away on them. Is this okay as the shell has already been crushed or am I taking to big a risk in feeding them to my GSP

[pufferfreak]

I do believe it is okay if you crush the shell.

[Nick]

I tossed some sandsifting snails into my GSP tank in hopes of giving them something interesting to chase around. Shakespeare couldn't break the shells, but he would pull one into his mouth and give it a good hard chewing now and then, with no damage to his beak. They were all killed way sooner than I hoped, as the snails would quickly peek out of their shells if overturned, and then get sucked the rest of the way out by an eager puffer beak. Shakespeare was chewing them HARD, and they weren't breaking, and I suspect they were a good deal harder-shelled than MTS. I'm starting a new thread on this.