The Puffer Forum

Hi,

I can very easily set up a 10 gal tank and breed cherry shrimp and snails for an F8 puffer.

Do you guys think that cherry shrimp are enough crunch for F8 teeth, or is it just a waste of time really?

Thanks

Snails would be OK

cherry shrimp not so much

RCS shells aren't hard enough?

Still easy to breed, you can fill them with goodness and it's nice for them to hunt.

Ya i suppose.

breeding shrimp and snails in the same tan isn't that advisable.

Why? Do the shrimp eat the snail eggs?

I wouldn't mix them for this reason:
The snails multiply fast and produce a lot of waste, so the water can easily become fouled. Most of the common snails are tolerable to bad water conditions. Also you may also end up doing 1-2 complete water changes in a week if the population gets out of control. Cherry shrimps cannot tolerate bad water quality with some kind of loss to their population.

IME, co-culturing feeders in the same tank is poor practice. Over time one species will do well, the other much less so. In culturing food, one species per container is best and also most productive.

RTR wrote:IME, co-culturing feeders in the same tank is poor practice. Over time one species will do well, the other much less so. In culturing food, one species per container is best and also most productive.

Does that go for the body of water or just the roaming space? In other words, have you tried putting a fine mesh divider to separate the two species? All this considering i would be doing weeklys.

Thanks!

If you have ever cultured RCS, you should have learned that the fry pass thru many meshes easily, and even some sponges.

But my comments do refer to the container itself, one species per tank. Feeding and water upkeep vary from species to another. What is optimum or even acceptable to one may well not suit the other. IME, it is far more productive to do one well that two moderately to poorly.

In the interest of fairness, I do have to admit that I generally feel much the same way about fish and inverts kept as specimens. I am not a fan of mixed tanks in any form. To me it is one of those "one size only rarely fits anyone well at all" things. I just cannot bring myself to do "community" tanks, as I do know how much better critters do in species tanks.

All JMHO, YMMV.

Thanks!