The Puffer Forum

Java moss is a wonderful nursery for any fry, but it is not at all essential for snails. If you want live plants, the anacharis is cheap and will do the job well, plus it will actually help absorb some of the excess nutrients fro the water.

The Java moss was expensive only because it had to be tied to the rock and held for a couple of weeks to shape it a bit. Those things are bad jokes IMHO. Java moss .is practically a noxious weed in tanks. It is great for several things, but it grows easily and excessively for just about anybody.

Why is moss always so expensive then? It's $7-10 here for a tiny clump, maybe the diameter of a looney. Ridiculous. I have some in my snail and shrimp tank that we got for free from other people. Two different kinds of moss I think as they look completely different.

you're paying "import costs" for localy cultured stuff

Name a tank a nano and watch the price go up. Example: since when is a 5 gal a "nano"? haha trends and marketing

Yup, +1 to J-P's comments.

Back when I was doing more breeding i gave away or composted pounds of the stuff every month.

There's lots of different types of moss.. and depending on local sources can really range in price. For example, if one hobbiest in your area grew a bunch, sold/gave a bunch to friends, other hobbiests and local stores, and all those people started growing their own, suddenly it wouldn't be rare anymore and the price would drop.

Back when I had tons of planted tanks I regularly sent out packages of my trimmings and handfuls of crypts to newbies who were having trouble finding plants locally.. so much easier to walk to the post office and ship it to someone than drive all the way to the local club auctions that were over an hour away and usually held while I was working! ROFL

'm pretty sure I'm doing this wrong. I have mine in a bare 5.5 gallon with some plant floating on top. I add flake food but I guess they need more. They must be eating because they sure do a lot of poop. I don't have a heater in the tank so the water's pretty cold. Do anyone here use a heater? I read they don't need one but it concerns me. I don't see any breeding going on, they are just dying off.

doyboy, I wish I had read your post sooner as I gave away all my remaining fake plants when I sold one of my tanks last weekend. Great advise, I'll be hitting the pet store tomorrow.

I have a heater in mine and a bubbler. I've got a bunch of moss in there as well. I've got a few pieces of duck weed but I can't seem to keep that stuff alive, lol.

I'm going to see if I can get some anacharis. I hope I pronounce it correctly so I don't look like an idiot.

I wsa told I don't need a filter as long as I do an 80% change every week. I changed the water last week with a syphoning hose which I don't think is a good idea because I will be just sucking up eggs too, if there were any. How do you change the water?

I don't need a filter as long as I do an 80% change every week. I changed the water last week with a syphoning hose which I don't think is a good idea because I will be just sucking up eggs too, if there were any. How do you change the water?

From my experience with breeding snails, You do not need a filter but it will depend on how far you want to go with breeding snails. I've seen/read about some tanks that are as complex and diverse as saltwater tanks for raising/breeding snails. I strongly advise you decide on how far you want to go with breeding and/or raising snails. Right now my snail jail is used to feed my puffers so it's nothing crazy. I have an 1G ice cream bucket, with a fake plant lying on its side, I do 80 - 90% water changes every second day and I feed them flakes, snail jello, lettuce, cucumbers every few days. I've read on numerous posts the best conditions for breeding are warm water (80' give or take a degree), clean water, and an abundance of food. I've read a lot of posts from more experienced breeders that the more food they have, the more they will breed and controlling their food intake is also a form of breeding control for snails. As for cleaning, pending on the size of your tank will depend on what method you use. Since my tank is so small I use a turkey baster to do the water changes. I do have to be careful after the eggs hatch because the little snails are difficult to see but surprisingly they still hold onto the side of the bucket fairly well when i'm doing the water change. Some people use a gravel vac tube covered with a mesh or panty hose and will look and pick out the snail babies from the "junk water/bucket".

After using the small 1G bucket, my family and I decided we want to take the snail farm to the next step and we will be getting a 10G tank with a sponge filter, heater and live plants. What made us decide this was seeing how I raised a straggler Ramshorn snail, roughly 2-3ml, to about the size of a cm. It's actually kind of cool to see how big he's gotten. My families been bugging me to make our family fish blog so maybe i'll post pics... one day when I have time! lol!

Sorry for the long post, hope this helps!

d0hb0y: Good post. Most folks seem blissfully unaware of the kinetics of snail breeding, so that is very worthwhile information.

In short,production is related directly to food supply, and growth rate and total productivity are directly related to temperature and water conditions - including water quality. Remarkably like fish, only wityh much wider allowances. ..

D0hb0y, thanks for the great information. I picked up a heater today as I know the water is wayyyyyyyyy too cold. I asked about anacharis and she said this is probably the technical name so I'll have to google what laymen call it. I don't want anything elaborate, just good enough for them to breed and grow. What's snail jelly? I was thinking of putting in a betta, just to add something attractive to the tank. Bad idea? Will it be too small for snails and a betta, being only 5.5 gallons.

NP, hope the info helps.

Anacharis also known as Elodea. Try plantgeek.net or plantedtank.net for more plant info. You can always get a fake plant like me, it works great for me.

Snail Jelly = Home made snail food. I tried it out the other day and WOW!!! My snails ate it all up and are probably going to be laying eggs like crazy. If you'd like the recipe I can post it. I got some other recipes that i've found on the net that I could share and I can post those as well.

Betta fish... Depends on the personality of your betta fish. I've heard some people have had great success with it, and some have had bad results. Betta fish may or may not eat the snail eggs or snail babies. As well, you have to watch the bioload of the tank regardless of the size. If you're going to add a betta i would suggest getting a filter, probably a sponge filter would work best. Snails can produce ALOT of waste and other stuff that will effect the bioload and that can make your ammonia, nitrites, and/or nitrAtes. Stay on top of testing your tankwater and performing water changes and you SHOULD be ok.

A recipe thread would be excellent!

RTR wrote:Er, umm - ramshorns are egg-mass depositors, quite lie common pond snails. Are you thinking of MTS, Malaysian Trumpet Snails? Those are not suitable for feeding puffers, the shells are too hard and break the puffers dental plates.

HJTH

I generally never have experience which disagrees with what you say, but here, I do have some I believe is worth consideration. My experience with MTS is that they have shells which are, in density and hardness, just like most salt water snails. Therefor, _IF_ they are of the correct size, nearly any mid-high brackish puffer, or any marine puffer, can safely consume them. Shakespeare, a GSP at about 4" now, can demolish any trumpet snail I have tossed to him, and I have experiences at my pet store job strongly indicating that essentialy any salt water puffer of that size can break them equally easily, if not easier, given that juveniles of larger puffers have oversized heads and beaks in their youth. The smaller salt water puffers seem to be smart enough to either ignore snails too tough for them, or wait until they extend their bodies fully, and "slurp" them. Obviously, just avoiding feeding MTS, nerites, or salt-water entirely is a very good default, but I believe a very good number of puffers are able to deal with them.

Nick wrote:Obviously, just avoiding feeding MTS, nerites, or salt-water entirely is a very good default, but I believe a very good number of puffers are able to deal with them.

since dwarf puffers tend to be "slurpers" rather than "crushers", how might they do with MTSs?