The Puffer Forum

So today I plan to setup a snail breeding project in an old 10g. aquarium. Should I use no gravel? And does a HOB filter work better for this than an in tank filter? Since I doing this size of snail breeding are there any fish I could put in the tank that would not eat the babies?

If you are setting up a utility tank to breed snails, what would the purpose of a fish in it be? I would suggest that a snail breeding tank should have snails only. and preferably only one kind of snails.

Substrate or no substrate is individual choice. I usually use some substrate, others prefer bare tanks.

The choice of internal or external filter is also personal choice and may depend on which of the two is best for the job. I tend to use air-riven sponge filters for snail tanks, but that also is personal preference and I already have plenty of those around for use in fish fry grow-out tanks.

HTH

Ok so no fish. I have a AquaClear HOB filter for a 20g. tank I could use. Would that be to much current for the snails?

it shouldn't be too much current.
Fish or no fish depends on the fish Some will pick on the snails or harass them. I have some guppies in all my snail tanks.
I have a betta in one also but that isn't working out. She eats them but I have no other place for her to go.

One of my tanks also has an HOB filter and it seems to work fine. If the filter is overly aggressive you can diffuse it.

I'll post a quick vid of the diffuser I made in a bit haha (proud papa)

One thing I found if your using an HOB is it is best to put a prefilter on the intake, my snails tend to get stuck in the intake if I don't use one. Also I tried guppy's in mine too until I caught them eating the eggs.

may adult ramshorns will also eat their own eggs, but I feel that is due to under feeding.

So I should them plenty of food for maximum efficiency.

I have a 10 gal. snail tank right now. Heres what I have going on. My intent was to breed guppies, but then unfortunately (heh heh) we went to a petstore and saw the Figure 8 puffers and, well... I need a snail breeding tank. Anyway, I already had a breeding box full of guppy fry, as well as some molly fry and red wag platy fry. Ive transferred them all to the snail tank, or guppy tank, whatever and everyone is getting along very well. I put in some Java Moss and have been noticing the snail babies (as well as the fry) hiding out in it and growing larger. They finally started to breed! I have gravel and some leftover cichlid substrate in my tank (it got mixed in with the gravel, didnt want to just waste it, it was expensive). Ive temporarily put my female guppies into the baby tank because they are pregnant and it will be so much easier for them to have the babies in the baby tank rather than me trying to chase and scoop them out of the other tank... and although the babies and adult guppies nip at the snails a little, its curiosity mostly and they dont harm the snails. Guppies are greedy eaters. I dont think Id keep adult mollies with the snails though. You may want to get a sponge filter, depending... Ive found a few snails stuck to the filter tube that basically got sucked to death. Tragic. So one more thing... which just might be helpful. Youll notice snail eggs, theyll be in tight clusters but they are clear and what you will see is that clear film with round clear eggs in it. If you are afraid that they will get eaten, I actually tried an experiment and took one of the test tubes I use for testing my tank water and scraped the egg bunch into it (with the tube full of water). I left a bit of foliage in it, because I wasnt sure how quickly the babies would grow. But you can cap the tube and leave it in the tank as I did (float it, or sink it, no difference) and the eggs will grow safely inside it. Im watching some right now that I found on a floating leaf. But once your snails start breeding there will be eggs everywhere like crazy, and unless you have Cory Cats I really dont think any fish in the tank will be able to see them to eat them, I havent had that problem. Except when the Cory Cats found the eggs, those persnickety cleaners. Good luck!

P.S. You can buy Algae Wafers to plunk in the tank if you think your snails arent getting enough to eat. I have ghost shrimp in with the snails so I feed them a bit of flake food, bloodworms, but they enjoyed the algae wafer too. Im not sure if the snails would eat bloodworm. Actually, I think theyll eat whatever gets in their way. They ate one of the dead shrimp pretty quick.

When you set a tank to breed snails (or any other live food), adding other critters of whatever kind reduces the production of the beasts which the tank is set to produce. I do not understand intentionally reducing the production of cultured foods. If you want a fish or shrimp or snail tank, set a fish or shrimp or snail tank. Setting a mixed community tank is a poor way to produce live foods IMHO & IME.

If you want a community tank set one. But don't rely on that to produce live food.

So in order to get as much snails as possible should have just snails.

I am currently feeding my GSP puffer a combination of about 85% maggots 10% snails and 5% crickets. This is NOT a good diet, but it has been working. I plan to switch to mostly snails once I have a supply of them. Besides that I don't know what I should feed my puffer. The other day I thought I would try ghost shrimp, but they were 2$ a piece! Is that a reasonable price. What other food could I try. During the summer I can bike down to the lake and get baby crawdads.

This is NOT a good diet

Go to the produce dept of your local grocery store & raid their fish dept. Get shrimp, oysters, clams, mussels & crab legs. This is what your puffer should be eating.
library/feeding/feeding-your-puffers/

Pufferpunk wrote:

This is NOT a good diet

Go to the produce dept of your local grocery store & raid their fish dept. Get shrimp, oysters, clams, mussels & crab legs. This is what your puffer should be eating.
library/feeding/feeding-your-puffers/

thanks you've helped me again.