The Puffer Forum

So, something just occurred to me.

I've been culturing common pond snails for my future puffers. Good stuff, right? But... are they known to eat plants? What if I put a few into the tank when my puffers come, and one gets away and lays eggs? Or perhaps I get odd puffers that won't eat the snails.

Will the pond snails harm my beautiful plants that I've been working so hard to grow? Should I be looking to culture, say, ramshorns instead?

Argh!

Check this thread here: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=29681

I posted a link there from eBay where you can literally get a hundred or so Ramshorn snails for $20 if you decide to go that route. That should definitely get you started. Variety is good as long as you avoid the Malaysian Trumpet Snails as fish food.

Yeah, I was just looking at that thread, but I didn't want to hijack it.

I can get some ramshorns for free at the pet store in town if I need to. I need to purchase a lot of things for the tank, so buying snails isn't high on my list right now.

Do you know if the pond snails will eat my plants, or if the scenario above is plausible?

Also, I've been reading several times that MTS aren't an issue for DPs, because they slurp them out instead of crunching. Not that I'm wanting to feed those, though, but I am considering getting a few to stir my sand up. I'm finding myself unable to stir it properly by myself due to all of the plants and hard scape.

From my experience and research they usually only go for plants that are already dead or dying/rotting.

As for your DP's you will have to wait for someone with experience with them to tell you. I am fairly new to the puffer world myself.

Full sized common pond snails may rasp certain plants older foliage. But hobbyists with common pond snails only rarely see full-sized snails - the critters over-breed to the point that it is tricky to get larger specimens. I use either common pond or ramshorns in all of my grow-out tanks for plants and never get such damage.

Sucker-mouth catfish - even the so-called dwarf types may also rasp old foliage. The bottom leaves of mature Sword plants tend to show such rasping frequently. But those leaves are ready for trimming off anyway. It prompts the tank keeper to keep their plants well groomed.

Thank you, RTR! That's exactly what I was looking for.

They only eat bits of plant you should remove, as stated above