The Puffer Forum

I have a 4 year old Fahaka who, until I took him on a couple of months ago, was in a 260l tank. He's now in a 400l tank. He is only about 7'' long. Is he likely to grow to his full size? At what age do they stop growing? I have him in a 400l tank currently but if I see signs of growth he'll be moved to a bigger one.

What are the best snails to buy for him? I'm breeding/growning snails in my other tanks but they are still very small. His previous owners bought him pond snails over the intenet but I've had some trouble finding snails that are not tiny like those I already have. Are there any snail species I should avoid for a 7'' puffer (shell too hard?) or can you recommend somewhere I can buy them? I am in Hampshire, UK.

I'm currently feeding cockles, mussles and feeder shrimp.

Fish never stop growing, but after puberty and especially after fully mature adulthood they growth rate is very slow.

I would doubt that the fish will ever reach normal full size, but it does or should have enough years left to grow a good bit. Puffer grow fastest when immature - the FW giants get to 2/3 to 3/4 mature size before puberty. The last i/4 to 1/3 takes several years IME.

Thanks. At what age are Fahakas mature?

About 2 years.

Thanks bertie

Do you feed snails? Where do you source them?

I feed snails several times a week, I have a breeding tank. If you have trouble sourcing them pm me I have many you can have. A basic setup is fine for breeding snails

Thanks bertie. I have a 10l tank that I put snails in from my other tanks. I have an internal filter and heater. I feed them cucumber and fish food but I seem to be losing quite a few and not sure why. I do weekly water changes also. I've been running it for about 3 months but with snail loss and slow growth they're still tiny and not even a light snack!

I'd appreciate any tips.

I run with minimal gravel and feed algae wafers and novo tabs, cucumber may leach juice into the water messing it up. Remove some of the small snails to reduce bio load for the biguns. I also change about 60% water 3x weekly due to volume. Use a good filter, I use an eheim ecco

Thanks for that, much appreciated. I have 2 small internal filters rated for much bigger, though not convinced. Bought them as emergency filters but as wasn't all that impressed with them I use both for 10l snail tank.

I'll ditch the cucumber. Funny enough, when I came home today I found the snail tank clouded and smelling of old cucumbers so just done a water change and removed the cumber!

Lol anything will pollute, just some more severe and I tend to avoid stuff that is overly messy ( puffers exempt from that statement lol)