Feeding of mid-size puffers

[emariebw]

Hi all! So I have been reading the library articles and brackish water threads for literally hours, and while I have found a lot of good info, I haven't quite found what I am looking for
Please excuse if some of the questions are kind of dumb, I've been out of the puffer hobby for a few years and am trying to refresh/catch up :/

I am planning on getting a GSP or a Ceylon probably in January, after I move. The only other puffer I have owned was Lola, my Fig8. I bred pond snails for her, which was her staple, and I also occasionally fed her a "medley" I had made of chopped up squid, scallop, bloodworms, and I don't remember what else--whatever was available at our grocery store when I made it. She occasionally got ghost shrimp to hunt whenever I made it out to a LFS.

My question now is, for a mid-sized puffer such as a GSP or Ceylon, are ramshorns better than pond snails; do they get larger? Should I breed both? I've also been looking into red cherry shrimp as I read a lot about breeding those for their puffers back when I had Lola, but I never tried myself. Are they worth breeding?

I have a twenty gallon that I would like to buy dividers for and use as a breeding tank; do you think that is feasible? I read earlier that pond and ramshorn should not be housed together? And I'm assuming shrimp would eat the snail eggs?

And, finally, I've read about people feeding clams and mussels to their GSPs and Ceylons. If that's the case than it must be fine, but I'm paranoid that it would break the puffers beak?? do you split them open first and let them scrape their teeth, or do they break them open themselves?

Sorry for the rant, I tried to read up as much as I could before posting this! Thank you so much.

[RTR]

To me, rearing enough smallish snails for a mid-sized fish such as GSP or Ceylon requires a good bit of tank space and care. For these fish and larger ones, seafood and shellfish based diets are more practical and provide the fish better variety than a cultured snail diet. The fish market is your friend. A variety of foods is cheap insurance that you are covering the nutritional needs of your wet pet, even if you use additives/supplements with the foods. For SW puffers, do not omit some veggie feeding via dried macroalgae. FW puffers commonly do not consume much veggie mater, but the marine ones do in the wild, so should be offered the same in captivity.

[emariebw]

Thank you RTR! So in feeding shellfish, would I crack the clam, oyster, mussel, etc in half and then feed the half? I would be worried about the puffer breaking it's teeth if not??