The Puffer Forum

Hello,
My DP seems to leave the larger Snails I get from my LFS.
Does my Puffer (I've had her for about 3 months) need to suss out that big snails are ok to eat or is there a size limit to which a DP will eat?

Thanks Jerry

Keep in mind that they only have small mouths, so I am guessing that your DP is only eating the snails that she is able to eat comfortably.

no bigger then the size of their eye seems to be a good rule of thumb

DPs are not snail crushers. They are biters and slurpers. They do not have sufficiently strong jaws or the heavy dental plates of their larger cousins, so cannot easily crush most snails. They do not and cannot do more than nip exposed snail flesh if the snail is too large.

I have heard that DPs tend to nip at things until the victim dies. Also a certain website says that they have been seen in situations like this- "It looks like a dog with its head stuck in a cardboard box!" so the snail must be big enough to get it's head in the shell.
It seems my DP is more like yours. It is even leaving small Malaysian Trumpet Snails. I was hoping tat my DP would keep these snails in check by eating the eggs and small snails.
My DP is about a aggressive as the Ottos I have.

Cheers Jerry

Malaysian Trumpet snails have a very hard shell, and most puffers will not try them and I certainly would not expect a small dwarf puffer to be able to eat them. Not sure that puffers will even eat snails eggs to be honest.

The question of eggs is moot for MTS - they are parthenogenic females. There are no external eggs.

I thought that Puff would go for the soft bits and bite their heads off; no??
I know MTS have a hard shell that my DP will not even scratch so the soft bits are the only way in.

I was hoping to Puff do this as shown below (2mins 30 secs)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TWgWSVwvq4

Cheers Jerry

you can always crush the snails between 2 spoons if the shells are harder but I wouldn't try any cone shaped snails.