The Puffer Forum

The title pretty much sums it up. I've got a small snail breeder going, and literally only 1 LFS in my area of Houston has any snails, and they only gave me a dozen out of reluctance because they have a fahaka/mbu/hairy puffers in house. However, I do live a 5 min drive from Nassau Bay and enjoy fishing and crabbing, my last outing i got probably a 1 lb crab and a couple of babies, enough legs to last my 3 1.5" f8's a decent bit. Will crab legs suffice just as good as snail shells to maintain puffer teeth at least until my snail eggs start hatching? There's close to 40 egg clusters already, it's just a matter of time till I can somewhat sustain a good feeding size population.

I would imagine crab is more then adequate enough for a f8s teeth. Just make sure the crab is frozen 24hrs before feeding if it's wild caught. Wild animals are teeming with parasites.

I'm not sure a F8 could bite through a crab shell.
Here are some other ideas: library/feeding/feeding-your-puffers/

The two i've been slowly feeding were frozen well in advance and then i thaw them. they seem to go more nuts for crab legs than anything. At their current size, they do have trouble biting through it, i make a couple of cracks in the shell and i find they viciously attack it and end up carrying the shells in their frenzies all the way across the tank and back, but they are getting the meat out.

Perfect!

Owner-bred snails are the safest and likely most nutritious live food available for small and medium puffers, providing of course that the snail tank/tanks is/are as well maintained as are the fish tanks. For safety, convenience and size selection I would not do it any other way.

I always write this after reading this type of post but do bear in mind that snails propogate profusely and are easy to captively breed. Crabs on the other hand are generally wild caught and by definition not so sustainable a food source.

Iliveinazoo wrote:I always write this after reading this type of post but do bear in mind that snails propogate profusely and are easy to captively breed. Crabs on the other hand are generally wild caught and by definition not so sustainable a food source.

There is something called a micro crab, they are perfectly sized for F8s and readily breed in freshwater. They are fully aquatic.


They make for entertaining live food, though snails win in the easy to breed category.

Cute crab!

Pufferpunk wrote:Cute crab!

lol puffers think so to, they love killing with kisses

Also the.crabs winking or missing an eye

How long are the crabs QT'd before being used as live food?

I do not trust live food I have not bred myself other than California Blackworms - I have decades of experience with those without any issues.

They do seem pretty cool little crabs.

I looked at getting some a year or so ago when looking for something different to snails to have in a planted breeder tank but seem to remember reading that people were having dificulties keeping them alive for long and I can't remember anyone having any success rearing baby crabs for more than a couple of days?

If you have any success stories that would be great! How do you keep and breed them?

Iliveinazoo wrote:They do seem pretty cool little crabs.

I looked at getting some a year or so ago when looking for something different to snails to have in a planted breeder tank but seem to remember reading that people were having dificulties keeping them alive for long and I can't remember anyone having any success rearing baby crabs for more than a couple of days?

If you have any success stories that would be great! How do you keep and breed them?

I haven't bred them myself, but I did ask the LFS about it at the time. What I seem to remember is that you need a fine sponge in front of the filter intake. At the LFS they had an entire wall of the stuff. These little crabs are filter feeders. No idea what their lifespan is as I bought a few to see if my GSP would like them. Their requirements are similar to that of red cherry shrimp.

Just make sure the crab is frozen 24hrs before feeding if it's wild caught. Wild animals are teeming with parasites.



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