The Puffer Forum

I want to feed my marine puffer snails as a major part of its diet, but can I get freshwater snails for it or do I need to find some small sw snails. I keep reading about ramshorn snails, but those seem to be fw. What I want to do is set up a colony of snails.

FW snails are fine, as far as I know. Asian seafood markets may have live salt water snails by the pound, a VERY cheap way to get them.

Do they not die as soon as they hit the salt water? Or is it that the fish just eat dead snails?

Yes, be sure your puffer eats all the snails or you'll have to remove them, as they will die from the SW. Since FW snails won't be a natural diet for SW puffers, I really don't suggest them as food. Crabs or crab legs, oyster/mussel/clams, squid, etc, all work well.

Nick wrote:FW snails are fine, as far as I know. Asian seafood markets may have live salt water snails by the pound, a VERY cheap way to get them.

Which nationality do you think is most likely to have them? We get good frozen puffer food at a local Vietnamese market, but we haven't seen any snails there.

I got mine in chinatown, NY city, so I suppose Chinese is best.

I've bought live SW snails at my local Produce World. Live crabs too. Haven't seen them there lately though.

Now I'm confused. Why is it suggested we feed gsp's fw snails in the feeding section in the library on tpf? I know there is a difference of salt in marine and brackish tanks but it has also been suggested gsp do better in full marine.


Is it because in the wild gsp can travel to fw if it wants to?

It's different for BW fish, than marine.

you can buy fw snails, like ramshorn. thats what i feed mine. you can get them from aquabid.com the price isnt bad.

I've always been told its a good idea to feed marine fish freshwater snails and vice versa, since that reduces the changes of bringing in parasites and diseases that will affect the fish that is eating them. (for example, lets say some freshwater ich was hitchhiking on the snail shell somehow, I know not a good example but work with me here, when it hit the full saltwater it wouldn't be dangerous to the fish, since it can't survive in those conditions).

I feed Paris Ramshorn and MTS snails all the time, just because they are convienent and I like to vary her diet as much as possible. They aren't her main diet but she goes nuts when she sees them, definately her favorite food!