I found a solution for my messy eaters

[jmbishop]

I tested this in my gsp/archer tank first, now I'll be testing it in all my tanks. After a trip to the lake I came home with about 30 guppies and 20 topminnows. I quarantined them in a 10g for a few weeks and treated them for parasites. Eventually started feeding the the guppies to the archer, the bigger guppies have became permanent residents in the tank. Since the topminnows grow allot bigger than the guppies I put A few large and a few tiny topminnows(smaller than the eaten guppies) in the tank. So far none of topminnows have disappeared, and all 20 have been put in the the tank now. Since these little fish are free If the puffers suddenly decide they are tired of these little guys I'm not worried about what could happen to them, but for now they are eating everything the puffers scatter when they tear into there shrimp and my tank has never looked better. In my other puffer tanks I'm going to try the golden killifish(closely related to the topminnow)


topminnow


golden killifish

[StormySkiez]

Very pretty fish. Are those actual shots of what you found at the lake?

[J double R]

i would venture to say (unless that happens to be his name) that the copyright watermark on the first picture would be indicative of "no" being the answer to that question.

[Pufferpunk]

Your puffers still need to eat crunchy, shelled foods, which are still going to be messy.

[jmbishop]

My puffers get plenty of snails from my tanks and the LFS, the size and thickness of the shells keeps them from making a mess with them. I've been breeding pond sails in a tank but haven't been happy with the # of snails I'm able to harvest so I recently put a bucket outside and let algae grow for a few weeks then added some snail eggs. With no predators there #s should explode.