The Puffer Forum

I've been told that Malaysian Trumpet Snails should not be fed to puffers. Their shells are too hard and will crack the puffers teeth. Is this true?

yes

Thanks.

Phaedrus wrote:yes

hehe! Straight to the point; a man after my heart!

well they don't pay me by the word

I do have one question about this whole MTS thing - not that I'm doubting it based upon forum member's experience...but:

Figure 8s come from Malaysia, MTSs come from Malaysia...are we being a bit paranoid or do the two come from totally different biotopes so they'd not meet in nature?

Just curious - I'm a serious researcher into urban legends...be they the "humans can lick, too" type or related to the fish we keep.

Eric

Well I guess it's a bit of "better safe than sorry".

Some puffers are slurpers and suck the snails out, and others are crushers that chomp them to bits. The problem with MTS is that they have a trapdoor to evade the slurpers, and their shells are tightly-wound and very hard, making them more difficult to crush than other snails.

I knew I wasn't going to get away with just a one word answer.

Salt and snails, at least MTS, don't usually mix . Now that I've said that, I have no clue where freshwater puffers come from...

(and I will admit I have MTS in the tank I moved my SAP to, and so far so good. He's broken his teeth unevenly but nothing that he didn't do before and a quick trim straightened him out. Its still a risk though)

I hope no one misunderstands me, I'm not advocating keeping puffers with MTSs. But if F8s spawn in FW, it's hard not to see them wanting to nibble on MTSs, and they are remarkably hard little buggers as has been already mentioned.

Eric

Jayhawk wrote: Just curious - I'm a serious researcher into urban legends...be they the "humans can lick, too" type

humans can lick? huh?

Lisa - OK - urban legend time:

A woman lived alone in a house with her German shepard. She comes home late one night - too tired to even brush her teeth, and slips into bed. As she's starting to drift off, she slides her arm over the side of the bed to pet her dog who she hadn't seen when she came home (thinking he had gone to sleep without her). He licks her hand, and she sleeps through the night. In the morning, she wakes up and walks into the bathroom...and written on the mirror in lipstick is "Humans can lick, too, you know" - she screams, turns around, and sees her dead german shepard in the bathtub.

End of the urban legend. If it's familiar, there are a lot of versions of this one. For more fun, go to http://www.snopes.com

Eric

Jayhawk wrote: Figure 8s come from Malaysia, MTSs come from Malaysia...are we being a bit paranoid or do the two come from totally different biotopes so they'd not meet in nature?

Eric

Some freshwater puffers come from that whole area as well(Like Chonerhinus modestus) and i wouldn't want to see them try eating mts either. I think Mts are substrate burrowers , maybe the freshwater (and F8's) don't really see them that much in their habitats?

That's gross Eric!

Yeah, it's a creepy one, isn't it? Urban legends are so much fun - you can get them in the email, and I've read them in our local paper (the Kansas City Star) written as if they're true stories (ever heard of the guy who hides beneath cars in mall parking lots and cuts women's achilles tenons so they can then steal their purse? That gets reported by the press as true nearly every year, but it's only a legend).

Eric

all of it sounds weird, but the Tendon thing Would freak me out(even though I'm a guy) Because i have leg issue so I'm really sensitive about that kinda thing ewwwww just thinking about it is freaking me out , no more of this, back to the puffer Please!!!!