The Puffer Forum

See, my grandmother handed my daughter a $10 bill, and told her to buy any fish she wants (within her price range anyways...) but she has to name it Granny. So yesterday, we went on a trip to LFS and she found this little Dwarf African Clawed Frog. We got it home, acclimated him, and stuck him in her tank in her room (a poorly stocked 10gal, but I'm convinced it's perfect for her hodgepodge of whatever grandma sends her home with, and I'll clean it - but I won't go over it's inhabitants.) This morning, she said she 'Mom, I don't want my frog anymore. Can we feed him to the puffer?" (I swear, I just need to empty her tank and get her a DP, maybe 2 fem and 1 male of her own... however one inhabitant is a fish she's had over a year that her grandpa got her.)

So now, I'm curious... I don't want to end up hurting my Vicious, but I was curious too.... What do you think?

Fish eat frogs. I used to use one to fish with (sorry froggie.. ) Sounds like she needs to be without pets for a while, if she's that fickle about them.

While fish may eat frogs, in this instance, I think you need to take the frog back, otherwise I think your daughter may not appreciate and respect some aquatic life. Just because she doesn't want the frog why should it have to die? Sorry, but I'm for the froggie, let it live!!!

I'm not feeding it to my puffer. I think she just didn't inform me of the intent she had when she picked him out. We traded him for 2 more golden snails. Hopefully, her little tank will be a little snail hatchery of sorts - Not sure how to tell if these are male and female... I read that golden snails/mystery snails have are not asexual and need mates =/

I'm very glad that you're not feeding it to the puffer, perhaps I misunderstood.

Snails are much more suited to a young person, and yes, you do need both a male and a female in order for the snails to breed.

While it is true some snails are asexual, you still need two to breed. They still swap fluids if you will.

pufferpuggirl wrote:and yes, you do need both a male and a female in order for the snails to breed.

That depends on the species. With applesnails you need both a female and a male.

I believe that's what she was referring to (Apple snails) and that's why I answered in that way.

I'm not sure exactly if they are apple snails. The ones we bought are hmm... About as big as a quarter I'd say... golden shell. The young lady at the fish store surprised me, although she looked like a wild little teeny bopper - she was informative and told me (and showed me how) to 'burp' my snail about once a week. I had never heard of this before, and lo and behold, they shot out some bubbles. She said too much air in there will kill them, and make them float. yadda yadda yadda.

They looked just like my Mystery Snail from Wal-Mart... But these were called Golden Snails. I have a total of 3 now... breeeed babies breeed! We'll see how that goes. I might have to move those three to a neat little contraption of my own... Could I make a 'breeding jar' for them? Perhaps... in a quart mason jar? (I seem to have a lot of these around...) stick a bubbler in it, and maybe an algae covered rock from the fountain outside (fountain is broken... rocks and rainwater in it...) Hmm... the ideas... I'd like to come up with something that would fit right behind my puffer's tank.... hmmm *feel those gears turning...* I'll have to think on that while I get cozy in bed....

Basically, there's Pomacea diffusa aka Pomacea bridgesii, or mystery aka Briggs snails...they come in a rainbow of colors, take a look:
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll63 ... ETE455.jpg

And then there's apple snails, Ampullariidae, much bigger - usually golden or brown:
http://www.directtropicals.co.uk/images ... _snail.jpg
http://www.manandmollusc.net/Odessa/bar ... -small.jpg

Quote from platytudes at WWM

She was helping me ID my new snails Strange how some things seem to be done all at once

Holy snikes, that one is HUGE... Are those all the same?? haha, wow... Yeah, my snails all look just like that - the smaller ones at least. Sweet, hopefully we'll have babies... Gonna research on the apple snails, hopefully 1 of my 3 are a different sex.

http://applesnail.net/
This is a great site for id and care info...

There's no such thing as a dwarf African clawed frog. There are African dwarf frogs and African clawed frogs, but not a mixture of those. You either had a baby African clawed or an African dwarf; most likely it's an African dwarf.

http://www.ultimatebettas.com/index.php?showtopic=14039 - for future reference, in case she ever wants these again.

whichever it was, it had claws on it's back webbed feet. He's back at the store now

That's a good thing, as they grow as large as your fist!