The Puffer Forum

Okay, as some of you may know I will be acquiring a f8 this year. How do I culture snails as its diet and where can I get some for free or at least really cheep to kick start the culturing process?

Ramshorns are good, could probably find them free on an aquarium-forum but they're usually pretty cheap.

I'd get around 5-10 of them, put them in a 5 gallon tank (or pretty much any size, as long as the water is good/nicely aerated) Also had some luck feeding them flake food to get them to 'mate' lol. I fed mine some and they were on each other pronto... (coincidence perhaps )

Within a month you'll have more snails than you can handle xD

Just about any pet store that sells live plants has nuisance pond snails in their tanks; they come in on the plants. Most would be willing to give them to you if you asked them. They'd be happy to get rid of them, I'm sure.

They always have snails at petsmart when I go there. They put koi in their tropical tanks to get rid of them. I could probably get as many as twenty. How do I filter their tank? The snails tank I mean

what i did was i had one of those combo hood filter tanks, like 3.5 gallons or so that i had from a betta my old roommate had. i just let that filter run since they are a little weak and it didnt really disturb anything. if you do the pond snails then you might want to start as far ahead as at least 2 or 3 months, you will really go through some snails if you do the recommended couple times a week feedings of them. you could also supplement with hard shelled foods for the puffer like clam on the half shell, mussel on the half shell, pieces of crab legs, shell on shrimp, stuff that they would have to bite and basically scrape their teeth on and you wont go through as many snails. another note that if you do snails, offer some cucumber, zucchini, eggplant and other veggie items for snail food and that will ensure your snails are gut loaded and the puffer is getting those vitamins from the veggies through the snails

would a basic power filter do?

yeah i believe, if you feel the current is too strong place some filter floss near the output or set the filter on a lower setting. you should be good