The Puffer Forum

just still researching while my tank is cycling
i know you can get crab and other shell food from super market. but where do you guys get your live snails from or what type do you get (common name)
they will be for a porcupine puffer
also what size must they be in relation to the puffer size,i said in another topic that i had found a supplier of trumpet snails but was told that they are too hard and could break puffers teeth but wasnt really givern any other ideas
thanks in advance

common pond snails and ramshorn snails should do fine they're freshwater but wont last long enough to be affected by marine conditions. See if any LFS have any unwanted snails in their planted tanks they would be happy to get rid of, other than that find someone with a pond and see if you can rob a few from there. Then get em up and breeding and the young should be fine for the puffer. As a rule feed the snail to the size of the puffers eye but should easily take bigger than that especially with the jaws of a Porc. As it gets bigger, cockle in shell and crab will probably be more appropriate, more crunch factor for those big teeth.

Yeah I agree with Hilly, it will not be long before the snails are no longer a worthy food for a porc. Cockles in shell is great as is shell on prawn and mussels and frozen clams are very good. As the puffer gets bigger you can try crab claw but it creates a lot of mess, have a look at the video "Clooney eats Crab Claw" in the vid section to see what I mean. Another good thing is to see if your fishmongers do a seafood mix in frozen bags. I used to buy one bag for £5 which would last about 2 months and contained mussels, prawns, squid and octopus tentacles. Get your porc onto as much avriation as possible and you will have one very happy healthy puffer. Relying on one type of food will lead to nutritional problems

If you really want snails, I suppose you could always try to raise apple snails? But I've heard they can be quite a bit more difficult to keep and get to breed than pond and ramshorns.

I have a freind with over 300 apple snails and he only bought 4 adults about 4 weeks ago, they laid eggs within 3 days and have comtinued to do so. He's trying to get rid of them. I'm gonna get a few and if I have the same problem thee excess will be on offer here

Ooh, what is he keeping the snails with? What are you planning to keep them with?

he keeps his in the the most stunning beautifully planted 750Litre African River themed tank. Its awesome

I'm just gonna chuck afew in both my tanks and see how they get on

I am sure eventually your puff will have a try at an apple snail. I bought a trapdoor snail once because it was cool, and let it stay in my snail tank. Well, it seemed that I was having fewer snail explosions and I suspect he was gobbling up the eggs so he went into my modestus tank. He hung around for almost 2 weeks and then one morning his shell was empty and his trap was laying next to it and he had a biggggg belly!

manutius wrote:he keeps his in the the most stunning beautifully planted 750Litre African River themed tank. Its awesome

I'm just gonna chuck afew in both my tanks and see how they get on

Nice I'd love to try keeping some, but there's no where to put any. We were thinking of putting one in with the dwarf as the owner said he was a bit of a wimp, but apparently she already tried and he started to pick at it within a day or so Oh well...

I have plenty of small snails in my freshwater tank, but Paruh just ignores them when I put them in the marine tank and I end up fishing them out again. He loves the mussels I open up and clip in a lettuce clip for him though. The only snails he seems interested in are my giant zebra turbo snails, which are bigger than him and he can't make an impressin on.

I have read that apples snails get picked on by smaller puffers, its like a living larder