The Puffer Forum

While I don't have a puffer just yet (youtube videos and the like are satisfying the fish 'itch' for now), I am going to be setting up for a snail colony, so I have a food source already set up when I do actually get the puff. I am going for a Dwarf Puffer, as I am more comfortable with straight fresh water. Going to try various foods but I know the one food most people feed them are the live snails.

What types of snails do Dwarves prefer/do you feed yours? Is there a preference towards a species over another? Is there a snail variety that I should not get?

This is my first go at trying to keep snails around, instead of trying my best to get rid of them. I am going to be getting a 2.5gal tank with a little running filter, the basics for a tank. I don't think gravel will be necessary, but I am open to any suggestions you guys have for keeping them. I'll stick an anubias plant or two tied to driftwood in there for snail eggs.

I am not too sure about feeding them, I saw someone mention on a webpage about just dropping lettuce/spinach/crushed peas...basically plant matter inside for them and maybe an algae tab as well. Is this correct?

Any advice anyone could give me would be great, as the fish are as good as what we feed them so I want my snails to be healthy and as nutritious as can be.

This should satify most of your questions: library/category/feeding/
library/puffers-in-focus/dwarfpuffercare/

Any sinking food will do IMO, keep the water clean and the snails fed and you will have a population explosion

2.5 gallons is way too small! I'm not saying for the snails....I'm saying for your sanity. You'll be over run quickly, water changes will have to be daily (or more) and its hard to clean a tank that small without dumping most of the snail babies out...

It's great that you want to do this, but dps don't need as much crunch as other Puffers. They'll do just fine with thawed blood worms and live black worms.

If you do snails, I find spinach has what they need. I use to buy frozen chopped spinach in blocks, cut down to smaller blocks...then pull the small blocks out of the freezer when needed. It floats, but the snails still get it. Also cuttlebone!

Welcome!

Snails will eat lots of things. Some really nutritious things you can give them are snello (you can find recipes online), Ken's veggie sticks with calcium, repashy soilent green, algae tabs, and of course veggies and lettuce which are less nutritious. The repashy soilent green is probably the highest on the nutrition scale followed by Ken's and the snello. If you don't feed something with calcium you need to put a cuttle bone in the tank or add another source of calcium in the water for the snail's shells. Harder veggies or tough greens will need to be blanched before feeding. I use lead plant weights to keep them on the bottom of the aquarium for the snails. Cuttle bones will float if you don't bury them part way or boil them (I haven't tried boiling them). You can also just crush part of the cuttle bone every time you do a water change and it will dissolve into the water. Some people use part of a tums tablet that has only calcium in it for the calcium.