The Puffer Forum

Can small snails be used as a staple food? If so which species and does anyone sell it?
If not, can brine shrimp be a staple food?''

BTW I've had fish for 3yrs


I have an empty 27 gallon tank, a 10 gallon tank and a 38 gallon tank.

I was hoping to have Dwarves, F8's and GSP's. (IDP's in the 10, F8's in the 27-30 and GSP's in the 38.
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Snails are a great food, there is a feeding article in the library also.
Brine shrimp is not a very good food, I'd leave it out all together.

For your tank sizes, 1 GSP would be ok in a 38 gallon, but could outgrow it. It would be ideal to just have 1 F8 in the 27 gallon, and you could have 2 - 3 DP's in the ten gallon. There are profiles on their care and requirements in the Pufferpedia.

Snails are a good regular food (pond and ramshorns) Brine shrimp is not good to be fed regularly. And i assume you are aware f8s are brackish and gsps should eventually be marine? Tell us a little about which fish you have kept etc

I find it very useful to have a breeder tank. I keep marmorkreb crayfish, mystery snails, ramshorn snails, cherry shrimp, and trapdoor snails in there. They provide a nice steady supply of food for my puffers.

I've had Piranhas, Brackish/SW and FW crabs, gobys... I've had a good about of all.

So4 F8's is way too much?

Does anyonw know a good large plastic bin I could keep about 4+ GSP's in? or 20+ dwarves

therealgeo wrote:I've had Piranhas, Brackish/SW and FW crabs, gobys... I've had a good about of all.

So4 F8's is way too much?

Does anyonw know a good large plastic bin I could keep about 4+ GSP's in? or 20+ dwarves

What you are suggesting would be a disaster. Some people have had success keeping figure 8's together. I have not. GSPs, like most puffers are quite aggressive, and should be kept alone. 30g should be be adequate for a single GSP unless they grow full size. For 20+ dwarves, well, I'm still an advocate for singleton puffer tanks, but if I were getting that many I would put them in a 100 gallon. I like to give puffers lots of space, but RTR shared that dwarves need a minimum 5g each. You need to be careful because the males can be quite aggressive towards each other.

Keep in mind that puffers have a much heavier bioload than the fish you have kept before.

As far as housing the puffers you mentioned, DP need 5 Gallons per dwarf, this is minimum, it's always much better to go with the biggest you can accommodatie.

F8's need minimum of 15 gallons per puffer.

GSP need a minimum of 30 gallons per puffer, but it's an adult GSP can reach 7", so a 55 gallon is a more appropriate minimum for a single species.

So if for some reason you wanted to keep the puffers in a plastic container, 4 GSP's would need 120 gallons, and 20 DP's would need 100 gallons.

About the plastic bin... I've never used plastic tubs for anything other than snail breeding myself. Whatever you use for your puffer(s), make sure that you have excellent filtration for the above-mentioned bioload.

OT but Reaper you havent had any problems with your crays eating all the babies of everything else. Mine ate all the eggs of the snails that were in the tank, and once in a while would eat a large snail. Mine eat anything/everything they can get there claws on. Watched one dig down into the sand to pull a MTS out

My recommendation? Put a single F8 in the 27 gallon and use the 10 gallon to keep and breed ramshorn snails to feed the puffer.

Do the dwarfs do better as singletons or groups? Going to go grab a 10 gallon today and going to work on getting it going for my little PZ

goldielocke76 wrote:Do the dwarfs do better as singletons or groups? Going to go grab a 10 gallon today and going to work on getting it going for my little PZ

DPs seem to be less aggressive to conspecifics than other types of puffers can be, but most puffs do best as singletons, even the dwarfs. I had 5 baby DPs that I couldn't sex, and when they hit puberty I discovered that I had 3 males and 2 females -- and the males were biting one another bloody. I kept 1 male and two females and they've gotten along decently since then, but I think any one of the 3 would be happiest as an "only puff," truly.

xrayjeeper83 wrote:OT but Reaper you havent had any problems with your crays eating all the babies of everything else. Mine ate all the eggs of the snails that were in the tank, and once in a while would eat a large snail. Mine eat anything/everything they can get there claws on. Watched one dig down into the sand to pull a MTS out

I'm sorry you had problems with your crayfish. Were those marmorkrebs though?

I've certainly had problems with other crays, but marmorkrebs have been completely different. They don't harm my plants, and although they do eat any snails or shrimp that may die, I've never had a problem with them killing off anything larger than a baby pond snail. I wrote about breeding them here ---> viewtopic.php?f=2&t=27924&p=299925&hili ... eb#p299925

Ya mine are marbles. Yours act way different then mine then. I toss in plant clippings and what not to them and they go to town on them lol. Im pretty sure J-P's are the same way

And it was never a problem, I had another tank for snails. So I didnt care about that

I read your post 4 times before I realized marbles meant marbled caryfish, rather than crazy lol. Maybe I should sell my marmorkrebs for having good behavior.