The Puffer Forum

flake food, algae wafers, or whatever is at hand

I have over 100 in a 5.5 gallon with an AC20 on it. Be prepared because a snail tank once fully stocked smells horrible. They produced a lot of waste. That little 5.5 gallon requires the majority of my maintenance time. It gets a 50-75% W/C every other day and complete filter tear down/cleaning at least every other week.

Ranshorns are bisexual, but cannot fertilize themselves. It takes two to tango. Ditto for common pond snails.

Apple snails are single sexed, so also requite two to tango.

MTS are parthenogenic females, so are effectively born pregnant and continue in that mode.

HTH

Are MTS good food for puffers?

mts and other coned shaped snails are not a good idea for puffers since the cone cause cause some serious damage to the puffer if it is chomped on wrong.

Have you seen the snail breeding article in the Library?

Ive been concerned after watching how my puffers tried to eat MTS before and after reading up realized I shouldnt feed them those. I do have too many of them though, and Ive taken to clipping the horn open and letting the puffers eat the snail out that way. Usually they just suck it out. But Ive gotten into breeding the pond snails. For one, I think they are cute, and two... they have been breeding like rabbits. Ive noticed that the snails will swarm onto any food left in the bottom of the tank, so occasionally Ill give them a clipping of a jumbo shrimp that I am feeding to the puffers, or a piece of algae wafer. Theyll swarm all over it. They also devour anything dead in the tank. Most of my ghost shrimps died and were devoured before I could even notice. I know its the snails that took care of it. Amazing little cleaners. I have baby pond snails all over my tank now, and I can see eggs all around the sponge filter I bought... which incidentally, didnt prevent the baby snails from getting sucked up the filter hose... every time I change filters I have to pick out baby snails before I wash it or throw it away. Its like a beehive only Im harvesting snails not honey. haha. But the sponge filter does help. I have one ghost shrimp left and hes fun to watch, and it makes me sad in a way that hes the only one left. But I also read they are territorial! Which makes me wonder if they died because they were fighting. Not sure since I didnt notice.

But yes... Im happy with the pond snails... the puffers love to eat them, theyre kind of cute with their spotted-looking burgundy shells... and they are breeding like crazy. Of course so are the MTS... but Im using them to clean up my platy tank.

Yes, pond snails are currently what I'm breeding. I'm very happy with them, my puffer loves them and they are bred with ease. I was just curious about MTS's because I thought it would vary his diet to add a different snail. Obviously not a good option though. I have however been considering ramshorns as an additional snail, but would adding a different snail make a big difference anyway. Its not a big deal if not because my puffer's diet is already pretty varied.

I have a couple ramshorns too, only two or so I think, and I havent noticed any young ones yet. Im not really sure why, since I believe they can change sex in order to breed and the ones I have are fairly large... but it may be because Ive heard they eat their young, I dont know. I also like the idea of giving the puffers something different to eat, I doubt theyll care or that it will harm them, as long as theyre gut-loaded snails they are nutritious Im sure. The only issue is the hard shells of the MTSs. I notice the puffs have no trouble crunching up pond snails whole. Also theyll eat any snail you offer.

I have also had good luck with gut loaded ghost shrimp as a way of adding some thing to there diet. Mostly been feeding my puffer people shrimp though.

i have bred ramshorn, pond and MT snails. I had no luck breeding ramshorn and pond snails together,...there seems to be some kind of negative interaction between the two.
Cherry shrimp are fairly easy to breed with the snails and the puffers love them

Blaine wrote:i have bred ramshorn, pond and MT snails. I had no luck breeding ramshorn and pond snails together,...there seems to be some kind of negative interaction between the two.
Cherry shrimp are fairly easy to breed with the snails and the puffers love them

Another reason for me to just stick to ponds. I don't have room for another snail tank.

Blaine wrote:i have bred ramshorn, pond and MT snails. I had no luck breeding ramshorn and pond snails together,...there seems to be some kind of negative interaction between the two.
Cherry shrimp are fairly easy to breed with the snails and the puffers love them

ohh. that could explain it. but it would never have occured to me. on that note, I wonder if the shrimp have some sort of negative reaction with the snails? since i lost so many so quickly. even though the one left seems to be doing fine... i cant wait to get some cherry shrimp. but i cant find any...

The most effective food-generating tanks use single species, period. Trying to breed multiple species in te same tank is like trying to mix varied puffers in a tank - you may get away with it for a while, but oveall and over time it if highly inefficient.

Ponds snails are easy and nutritious.

Ditto for ramshorns- which get larger if given more room.

MTS should not be cultured for puffers, too much risk to their incisors.

Shrimp, especially Red Cherry shrimp are remarkably easy and can also be nutritious but do almost nothing for incisor wear, which is needed for most puffers larger than DPs. They should be seen as treats only, certainly not a staple food for incisor wear as well as nutrition - they are essentially worthless for that.

Any mixed culture tank will eventually have one species predominating and the other or others declining in proportion. You cannot fight Mother Nature. If you have space for only one food culture tank, pick one suitable species and grow that well. Let your culture be as productive and healthy as possible. Don't waste time and effort trying to cover multiple bases on a variety of food critters in a single tank. Dong one well, as greenspottedlover does. It does pay off.

HTH

That's funny, since I have been successfully raising both ramshorn snails and Cherry shrimp in the same tank for over 5 years. The Cherry shrimp breed enough that I am able to sell the offspring and I grow enough ramshorns to feed both my Fahaka and Figure 8 snails daily.