The Puffer Forum

i have a steady supply of live ramshorn snails outside in our pond lillies infesting the pond and i want to start feeding them to my GSP but last time i tried he/she just did not do anything not even try to peck at it. he/she seemed unintrested. any tips on getting a puffer to eat snails? i have no problems getting it to eat froozen food

Try crushing them.

will they learn to eat it whole after a while? I might have to crush right now because the snail is just crawling around the tank but the puffer isn't doing a thing and it sees the snail clearly. will try it out see where it gets me. thanks

crushing it has worked didn't expect it to work so great. 2 seconds in and it just swam as fast as it could and gulped it up. time to start breeding snails.

Yep, crushing has always worked for my puffs. They still chomp on things enough to get the benefit of the shell's crunch factor. I collect my snails into a small tupperware and use the back of a spoon to crush them. Gross, but effective.

Also, make sure they're small enough. They should be about the size of the puffer's eye.

i was afraid of that but then again i wanted it to be a natural instinct kind of thing rather then me helping to crack it open. Yes the snails are pretty small we keep them in huge vases outside with pond lillies and they just eat all the algae growing on the inside. tried breeding them once and just got horrible results. majority of the snails died and water smelled bad too. going to try feed my puffer more snails now seems to love it then i will move onto bigger things like crayfish when it gets bigger

I.Puff.Too wrote:Also, make sure they're small enough. They should be about the size of the puffer's eye.

To eat whole, yes. But when crushed, even larger snails are suitable puffer food.

You eventually dont need to crush them. They will remember that the reward might be worth the labor

I'm glad that I never had to resort to crushing. Getting my puffs to eat snails was always as simple as drop 'em in the tank and behold the carnage, knock on wood.

I personally think that some puffers take snails more readily because they have spent less time in captivity. I have no hard facts to back this though. Maybe they forget snails are food after being dragged from their wild home and just offered easy foods for months or however long. Crushing the snail to reveal the flesh may simply remind them it is food. Just a theory I have lol