What species of tiny snails do you feed your Dwarf Puffer?

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puffertt77
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What species of tiny snails do you feed your Dwarf Puffer?

Post by puffertt77 »

Hello I've been feeding Naboo my Mbu Ramshorn Snails and he gets on fine with them

The problem I've got is that Bollo my SAP can not eat them because they are to big for him!

I need to start feeding him shells as his teeth need to start getting worn down

I was wondering which snails people give to their Dwarf Puffers with them being such tiny little puffer?

Can anyone help?

Thanks
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Re: What species of tiny snails do you feed your Dwarf Puffer?

Post by fishlady1958 »

i give my little dwarfs baby pond snails...i grow them in a baby tank and give them while they are little.....
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Re: What species of tiny snails do you feed your Dwarf Puffer?

Post by puffertt77 »

fishlady1958 wrote:i give my little dwarfs baby pond snails...i grow them in a baby tank and give them while they are little.....
Do you breed them in a heated tank?

Do they take long to breed?
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Re: What species of tiny snails do you feed your Dwarf Puffer?

Post by define999 »

This might sound mean, but hear it goes... For my GSP unfortunantly all i have avialable are trumpet snails..... So to deal with the hardness problem, I crush them in my fingers before feeding... than drop the snail mush with shell into the tank which Gaby eats... the small ones as big as her eye I dont worry about. But bigger snails, just kill em yourself.... it feels weird but your killing them anyway dropping them to thier deaths inside the tank......... I know, it sounds bad.... but you dont want your puffer to break thier teeth on a tuff snail shell....

This technique should work for giving bigger snails to smaller puffers.....
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Re: What species of tiny snails do you feed your Dwarf Puffer?

Post by puffertt77 »

define999 wrote:This might sound mean, but hear it goes... For my GSP unfortunantly all i have avialable are trumpet snails..... So to deal with the hardness problem, I crush them in my fingers before feeding... than drop the snail mush with shell into the tank which Gaby eats... the small ones as big as her eye I dont worry about. But bigger snails, just kill em yourself.... it feels weird but your killing them anyway dropping them to thier deaths inside the tank......... I know, it sounds bad.... but you dont want your puffer to break thier teeth on a tuff snail shell....

This technique should work for giving bigger snails to smaller puffers.....
Ooooh yeah thanks :)
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Re: What species of tiny snails do you feed your Dwarf Puffer?

Post by ROTTEN76 »

Pond snails reproduce very quickly, you'll have alot of small ones because they start laying eggs sooner than most other snails. A heated tank speeds up the process, I keep mine around 78-80.
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Re: What species of tiny snails do you feed your Dwarf Puffer?

Post by side19 »

i feed my DPs pond snails, and everyone isn't kidding when they say those little bugger breed fast. they start breeding in the bag from the store (i don't have a separate tank to breed them yet so i just leave them in the bag) and i can see eggs within a day.
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Re: What species of tiny snails do you feed your Dwarf Puffer?

Post by Myaj »

Pond snails and ramshorns, feed snails about the size of their eyes. Or slightly crush them first.

Define99, you have some awful soft-shelled MTS snails if you can crush them with your fingers, the ones I have you need a hammer and a hard surface, and even then it can be tough.
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Re: What species of tiny snails do you feed your Dwarf Puffer?

Post by puffertt77 »

Myaj wrote:Pond snails and ramshorns, feed snails about the size of their eyes. Or slightly crush them first.

Define99, you have some awful soft-shelled MTS snails if you can crush them with your fingers, the ones I have you need a hammer and a hard surface, and even then it can be tough.
Hey Myaj

I bought 35 MALAYSIAN TRUMPET SNAILS and although they're small they're sooo tuff :)

I put a couple in the tank and Naboo couldn't break them, He does crush the opening sometimes and sucks out the snail :)

I've left the rest in my net box that's hanging at the top of my tank, I also have 10 very small cherry shrimp growing in there to which will be food someday :)

I think i'll have to buy some Pond Snails for Bollo and put them in there to, to breed and grow

I did buy 10 Ramshore Snails that I put in the net to breed and grow but I got bored waiting and have fed them all to Naboo :)

Thanks for the advise guys
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Re: What species of tiny snails do you feed your Dwarf Puffer?

Post by fishlady1958 »

i put 3 snails into my baby grow out tank it has a heater and stays about 78 and i have 2 sponge filters, and an aquaclear hob filter ...within a week i had more than 50 in there...they hang onto the sponges and the small holy rock i have in there....so if you can get your hands on a couple of pond snails just throw them in a heated tank and booom.....instant happy meals for the puffs......
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Re: What species of tiny snails do you feed your Dwarf Puffer?

Post by puffertt77 »

fishlady1958 wrote:i put 3 snails into my baby grow out tank it has a heater and stays about 78 and i have 2 sponge filters, and an aquaclear hob filter ...within a week i had more than 50 in there...they hang onto the sponges and the small holy rock i have in there....so if you can get your hands on a couple of pond snails just throw them in a heated tank and booom.....instant happy meals for the puffs......

:) Thanks Fishlady1958
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Re: What species of tiny snails do you feed your Dwarf Puffer?

Post by pinkfloydpuffer »

Man.... I have almost no luck breeding snails. My whole population of pond snails disappeared and my ramshorns are going down in number. My MTS seem to be doing fine though :P I can crush them, but it's rather difficult and usually causes a bit of pain...
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Re: What species of tiny snails do you feed your Dwarf Puffer?

Post by define999 »

I dont know, maybe I have really strong fingers! :lol: Also, if they are the really big snails... just put them in a cup and crush them with a rolling pin. Thats what I do as well....... Maybe because my water in the tank the snails live in is softer it contributes to softer shells?????
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Re: What species of tiny snails do you feed your Dwarf Puffer?

Post by Myaj »

That would make sense of course. Here we have liquid rock for water so there's plenty of calcium, snails have extremely hard shells.

That's also been a theory as to why some people have to trim their puffer's teeth more often than others.. more calcium in the water means stronger teeth/bones, harder to wear them down naturally.

I'm going to move this up to the freshwater puffer section since its about feeding puffers...
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Re: What species of tiny snails do you feed your Dwarf Puffer?

Post by Neurotic »

Not to hyjack the thread but I have a question


I have an emperor 400 on my tank, and the snails are laying eggs, I havent seen any of them on the filter yet but should I get a sponge filter thing to cover the intake? or just leave it be?
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