Alternative CUC

[Goonerman1]

As beautiful as Puffers are they are a no no for CUC....so what do people use as an alternative? and are there any Marine snails that a Puffer won't munch??

[bertie 83]

Pretty much anything is seen as food by puffers. Buy cheap and hope but don't get attached.

[small_puffs]

I keep turbo snails in the tank with my puffers and the puffers leave them alone.

They're pretty large though and can knock over unsecured rocks.

[xrayjeeper83]

I have turbo snails, about 6-7 hermits, and 4 ghost shrimp. They do a great job and my GSP could careless.

[small_puffs]

Really? The puffer doesnt eat your ghost shrimp or hermits?

When I put ghost shrimp in, they are gone within the hour.
Added hermits get nipped constantly and usually only survive about a day before becoming puffer food.

[jus85411]

i got a small hermit crab once by accident when buying ghost shrimp. that poor little guy! my puffer harassed him for a while but realized he couldnt get it and gave up over time. i would still see the hermit upside down once in a while though so he either fell off a rock or the puff attacked lol. my GSP would eat/attack anything that was seen as food to him. shrimp, crabs, hermits and snails were all hunted in my tank. because of this i decided to try some nassarius snails, the ones that burrow and are nocturnal. my GSP had no idea i had them for a little while, then one day "did that snail just come from the bottom of the tank????" my puffer instantly went into hunting mode everytime he was hungry and started digging for these snails. though he was rarely successful, he knew they were there and he wanted them lol. the most entertaining part of this was when i had two GSP. they would both dig for these snails and occasionally look over at one another like "hey man you find any yet?" then they would look at each other then start digging again like "nah these things are good at hiding, lets keep going..."

[xrayjeeper83]

Really? The puffer doesnt eat your ghost shrimp or hermits?

When I put ghost shrimp in, they are gone within the hour.
Added hermits get nipped constantly and usually only survive about a day before becoming puffer food.

Well to start with I tossed in 10ghosts to give her something to chase. She took out 6 of them but doesnt harass the ones that are left. Bacon seems to understand the difference between food and not food lol. She seems to know that food either comes in a cup, attached to forceps. Anything that floats in a bag for a while before getting added is off limits lol