The Puffer Forum

jeromecarlyoung: When you have a fish that should live for at least 15 years, are you really willing to risk importing disease from any fish store with every feeding? Or are you operating a whole series of QT and conditioning tanks? To me, frankly that is the most short-sighted and impractical thing I have heard suggested on this board. NIMFT, ever, not under any circumstances.

agreed! i simply dont get snails from LFS anymore after learning more about puffs and the diseases and possible ways to introduce them. for something you try so hard to keep alive and thriving you could just flush it down the toilet(literally) with one bad feeding. i even put live littleneck clams in my tank before i knew about freezing and the reasons behind it. the clams have stayed alive in the tank and i havent removed them from the sand bed but from that point on i never did that before and all food given to my puff is frozen first to make sure anything is killed off. i just use the clams for dentistry as its my GSP absolute favorite to eat. he also does his own dentistry, or just picking at pods, but i see him nibble on the live rock once in a while

As RTR says; the risk of importing diseases is the driving factor. I also like the fact that I'm growing some native British aquatic plants.

I agree(as usual) with RTR completely. I would rather set up a small 5g tank with a simple sponge filter and breed my own snails then risk my puffers health with snails from the LFS