New here & question on dwarf puffer prey-snail size

[kyrie26]

Hi all !!

I'm new to puffers. I keep freshwater tanks and I've been wanting to keep puffers (especially dwarf puffers) for a while now. I have some questions if anybody would be so kind as to help :

1) Do puffers prefer fast-moving water, or slow-moving water, or still water?

2) If I get a dward puffer, the ones that don't grow past an inch, what size of snail is the maximum that they can eat? I have plenty of snails in my other tanks. Does a snail need to fit in its mouth? Will it completely "finish" a snail or will there be messy remnants, if the snail is too big?

That's all for now... appreciate any advice anyone can give. I've tried googling for this info but haven't able to find anything.

Cheers,

Gene

[JRC3]

I find that DPs like still and moving waters so I think it's good to have areas in the tank that have both.

And I feed mine mostly bloodworms but they do get snails frequently. I just grab a larger snail (1/8"+/-) and crush it, then I hold it with a pair of tweezers and let them bite off chunks. They love it. You could also just drop the crushed snail in the tank and they will eat it. I like tweezer feeding so I can control that each fish gets the right amount.

good luck

[kyrie26]

Thank you JRC3. Should I be concerned about water pollution with this type of feeding? I have a good filter (hence the faster current) and it's a 20-gallon tank with lots of plants. How many dwarf puffers would you keep in this size tank?

[Brent]

library/puffers-in-focus/dwarfpuffercare/

You could have up to 6 Dwarfs (5g for 1, 3g more for each added after) in that tank.

[kyrie26]

Thanks Brent, that's perfect.

Will dwarf puffers take bites out of plecos? I'm planning on having a pleco in that tank, which will start out at 1 inch but will be sure to grow to maybe 7 inches.

[Pufferpunk]

They will torture it.

[kyrie26]

Douh !! There goes my plan. I'll need the pleco to keep the glass algae-free. Oh well... I was hoping there would be a "natural" way for me to get rid of my excess snails from the other tanks, I guess I will have to resort to boiling them instead of feeding them to future dwarf puffers....

[Pufferpunk]

Otos seem to do better with DPs & are excellent algae eaters.

[LilGreenPuffer]

Not everyone winds up having an algae problem; I never have, even in the tanks without anything that eats algae. Also, a Mag-Float goes a long way towards handling any problems you might have. No algae eaters needed!

[Pufferpunk]

Not everyone winds up having an algae problem

I was thinking the same thing. I keep plecos because they're cool & feed them algae wafers & melons.

[SilasMortimer]

The size of the snails doesn't seem to matter. Well, other than the fact that they can gorge themselves on something like an apple snail.

They don't crunch the shells, they sneak up on the snail and slurp it out - or pick at it. I made the mistake of trying to keep a fully grown nerite with some dwarf puffers that lived with some otocinclus and shrimp with no problems. The poor thing. I thought it would be okay, because nerites are like tanks with their shells and can move around without showing much outside of the shell, but two days later, I saw it crawling up the glass - no antennae and chunks taken out of all sides, making it look almost like a puzzle piece.

The snail fully recovered in another tank. If I was mean, I could have left it in as a continuous source of snacks.

[jeromecarlyoung]

My experience with snails is that they are good with snails 3-4mm across. Bigger snails do get bitten and killed and then become messy. MTS snails end up like like this.
I had ancistrus pleco with my DP for a few months but read that thses fish do Poo a lot and can effect the water quality.
Otos seem good though (they seem to like more than one though).
Make sure make sure sure and oh yes...make sure that the DP eats frozen food. Get the LFS to how you. Mine doesn't like frozen and it's a pain.
-Jerry

-Jerome