Advise SAP

[Nikoo]

I have a 92 gallon aquarium in which I want to keep 3 SAPs.
Some time ago I was in the LFS and saw Brown ghost knifefish (Apteronotus leptorhynchus). Now I started wondering if I could keep one with the puffers?

[Pufferpunk]

I do not suggest keeping any sedentary fish with SAPS or any other puffers.

[Nikoo]

They are not that sedentary, they can be very active too and are awesome swimmers.
There is also a lot of wood in the aquarium in which they can hide.

[bertie 83]

Saps do not belong in an aquarium with other fish full stop. They need 95%+ of their diet to be crunchy foods or you will be performing regular dentistry which is stress ful for you and the puffers, the puffers will leave the crunchy food and eat what you put in for the other fish. Welcome to the forum

[Pufferpunk]

My BGK is hiding in the back of the tank, not swimming, unless it's eating. I could see any puffer making shreds of it's tail & long fin.

[Nikoo]

Ok, I was also wondring about the amount of SAP's I would get.
I could house 6 SAPs, or even more in that tank but is it worth to get more than 3?
Having only 3 saps will make it easyer to provide them with enough snails.

And how much snails should i feed?

[RTR]

+1 to Pufferpunk's and bertie's remarks above.

SAPs IMHO & IME are species tank fish. In some tanks with plenty of fine-foliaged plants, Otocinclus catfish may be okay with SAPs, but even that is not guaranteed. As implied by both PP & bertie, it is not that the SAPs are aggressive - most puffers are much worse - it is that the tank keeper must restrict their diet to high-crunch food. Those I have kept successfully have had diets of 95% or more home-bred and reared snails (ramhorns & common pond snails).

[bertie 83]

They use so much of the tank you don't need too many to be honest, constant snail feedings are required. Throw some in after dark so they can find some food.

[Nikoo]

Do they hunt at night? And could you give me a number of snails for 3 saps each day?

[RTR]

No, they sleep at night, hunt only during the light cycle. That is why we suggest adding at least some of the snails during the dark cycle. It gives the new snails time to disperse throughout the tank, which also means the SAPs get exercise hunting for the snails. If possible, use a timer on the light(s) to give the fish consistent day/night times.

[RTR]

Sorry, above post was incomplete. There is no fixed number of snails per fish per feeding. It varied too much with the size and activity of the fish, and the size of the snails in the current feeding.

[Nikoo]

I found a place where I can buy frozen sandcrabs 3-4cm.
Would this be good food and would it help with their teeth?

There are also a few anathoma helena left in my aquarium. I don't have any problem with them getting eaten by the SAPs but could they hurt them?

[Nikoo]

I found a store where i can buy frozen uncooked and cooked sandcrabs with a size of 3-4cm. Would this be good food for the saps?
And there are a few anathoma helena left in my aquarium. I have no problem with the saps eating them bus could they hurt the saps?

[Nikoo]

Yesterday evening I got 3 SAP's.
They immediately started glass surfing even when there are lots of plants and wood in the aquarium.
The aquarium is 350 liter (92.46 US gallon) and I have a cristalprofi e1501 filter (1400 l/h, 370 g/h). Should I get a powerhead for more current to reduce the glass surfing?

There were alrdy a lot of small snails in the aquarium and I've seen them biting in them a few times but they spit them out every time.
Because of this I've thrown a few pond snails in the aquarium but they didn't even notice them.

[Nikoo]

Have tried broken snails with garlic but they are not interested. Any other ideas? And one of the three doesnt want to eat anything, no mysis or black muscito larvae. He hasnt eaten anything since i got them 3 days ago.