Snail feeding/breeding question/s?

[Zera]

Good evening everyone, I have recently[this week] gotten a lil greenbottle puffer, and hes great, and to insure that he stays healthy and such, I have also started up a little 'snail farm' as i call it. my question is, [since my LFS ppl look at me like i have three heads when i ask about feeding snails to my puffer] I know they should be about the size of his eye, but, will he just simply devour them? i just gave him one, and to all appearances he chomped it a few times and then down the hatch it went.. i would have imagined a bit more chewing would be involved... but, i'm completely new to this and any insight would be appreciated, thanks.

[pufferpuggirl]

Some puffers crunch them up and eat them, but I have some puffers that actually pull the snail out from the shell and don't even crack the shell in any way.

[Bluntokian]

Some puffers crunch them up and eat them, but I have some puffers that actually pull the snail out from the shell and don't even crack the shell in any way.

Now, THAT, Would be interesting.

[LilGreenPuffer]

Mine do that. Of course, they're too small to crunch anything but the eensiest baby snail.

[Zera]

So I guess if they are plucking them out of the shells they really dont do anything for beak/teeth wearing to they.. thats my main purpose for all of this, as clipping them myself seems much too nerve racking for me. ive heard clams are good for that too, but i haven't read much if anything about freshwater clams..

[LilGreenPuffer]

They wouldn't have to be FW clams. You could use SW.

[pufferpuggirl]

Well last night my friend came over to help me do some trimming on my puffer's teeth and we had a conversation about snails afterwards. He came up with a very good idea, and one that I will be trying myself even. He suggested smashing the snails with a hammer, then throwing it all into the tank, that way the puffers will get the meat of the snail, but they also will have to chomp through the shell that's mixed up with the meat. Sounded like a good suggestion to me, and just right for puffers that won't eat snails in the conventional way, as mine won't. And I don't feel like having to hunt down my puffers to find the one with long teeth to trim every few months. So I definitely will be hammering snails later today!

[Lil' Swimz$]

My puffers don't touch crushed snails. Just throwing it out there.

[Zera]

So far he seems to be chomping on the smaller snails[about as big as his eye or so] so i'll see how it goes. thanks for the feedback guys, i appreciate it,