A few questions regarding GSP

[Pufferfreak42]

Hi everyone,

I just have a couple of questions. They've probably been already answered lots of times but I couldn't find anything.

1) What temperature do you normally have your tank at?

2) How many snails do you feed per day?

I'm in the process of trying to start breeding snails so I don't have that many at the moment and if he needs a number of them daily then there's gonna be a bit of a problem. I'm currently giving him 1 snail per day in addition to his regular meals of 2 freeze dried shrimp (tiny) and bloodworms. He's only around 1 1/2 inches so he's still a baby.

Thanks.

[purplecandle]

I only feed mine one or two snails one time a week. Normally I give them snails after their "fasting" day. I am pretty sure they only need snails once a week..just to cut down their teeth.

Mine like water on the warm side. The other day the heater came unplugged and they were just racing about..going nuts..till I figured out what was wrong. Right now it is at 74 or 75 degrees.



Good luck breading snails!

[bauk]

Mine only get them one's a month. I also give them wurms and Shrimps, that also helps for the teeth
And i only feed them one's in the 3/4 days.

No idea how you messure the degrees in Englisch..

[RTR]

All of my puffers - including the one lurker I have kept - have had snails (locally bred) as a non-trivial part of their diet. SAPs get at least 95% snails. The DPs likely have had the least, probably no more than 25% of their diet, as they do not require incisor-wearing nearly as much as their larger kin. F-8s and GSP (while young) get 75-90% of their diet high crunch foods, largely snails until they become too big for those I breed - F-8s never do outgrow snails, GSPs definitely do. but move on to frozen/thawed larger shellfish and other invert high-crunch diets, with snails as treats.

Personally, I would consider a once a week snail treat woefully inadequate for any hunter-predator's crunch allowance. I don not think that figure came from this forum. I have never seen any such statement here, at least not without correction..

There are excellent articles on feeding puffers in the library here, with suggestions on foods and feeding. You might want to review those for alternative suggestions. Home-bred snails are easy and convenient if you have the tank room and are willing to do this, but they are not essential. A high-crunch regular diet however is, in my opinion, a minimum requirement for most puffers long-term health. If you cannot or will not provide this, puffers larger than DPs are likely not the right fish for you. Those specialized incisors plus their set of smaller pharyngeal teeth are there for ornament, they are basic to their lifestyle.

HTH

[Pufferpunk]

library/category/feeding/

[purplecandle]

What??? I have seen that once a week figure all over the forum. Go to the search forum function and type in "snail once a week" and you will see.

How can I give a varied diet if I give snails most of the time?

My GSPs do eat other things with harder shells...although is small pieces

So what is it? What is the appropriate amount of snails to feed to a GSP in a week? I have seen that once a week figure a lot.

[Pufferfreak42]

Thanks for all the great replies everyone.

So, I don't need to give a snail every day, perhaps 3 a week?

My concern now is water temp. I have his at pretty close to 80 Deg, as I'm sure I read they like it warm. Is this too warm? I hope I'm not cooking him.

[Pufferpunk]

78-80 is good. BTW, although I see RTR as the #1 puffermentor around, I rarely feed snails to my puffers, except as an occasional treat. They seem to be breeding in my discus tank, so about 1x/month, I pick some out for the puffers.

[Pufferfreak42]

Thanks Pufferpunk, I should have said 30 Deg. I'll lower it a bit, to around 28 or so but it's so hard to keep it at that temp. As long as he's not too warm, that's what matters.