The Puffer Forum

mine never crush the whole shell... they eye up right into the hole than lunge and bite right into the whole, no matter how big or small the snail is. im going to try the pre-crush.

My GSP, actually Suck the snail out of the shell, and if the snail has a extra protector shell (like the Pomaceas snails family) they destroy this part and start to suck it out... i have a very nice snails shell substrate hahaha

It seems that puffers learn the easiest way to eat snails, depending on the shell shape.

Agreed. My puffers have done either one of these.

Maybe he's too little to crush the shell. :/ I used to have to crush some of the bigger snails for Balki, but he can get the little bit bigger ones too now.

Any puffer except some dwarf puffers seems to be able to handle the little pond snails. Have you tried those? You can go get some for free from petco or petsmart and stick them in a milk jug. You'll have tons shortly.

hey i tried the pre-crush and it worked great! they ate every last little piece of shell that was on its way to the bottom, i dont even think one piece hit the substrate! thanks for the info. im gonna keep crushing them less and less until they get the idea.

I've always hand-fed my F8 her snails, and i started out by exposing the snail's shell opening to her, so she could see the fleshy bit of snail. Tenative at first, but now she will take them if they're stuck to my fingers, if I drop them in, etc. With the bigger ramshorns that she can't crush completely, I'll let her attack it, and then I'll squish it in my fingers so she can get the rest of the meat that she couldn't reach.
The downside of all of this is now if i stick my fingers in the tank and I don't have a snail, she gets really mad at me.