amazon puffer

[jeffers]

hey i just got a amazon puffer about two weeks ago and he eats like a pig but i keep reading about hard foods. he eats ghost shrimp, blood worms, black worms, mysis shrimp. well i dont think any of those are helping his beak so where can i get snails or other stuff to help him out. and how do you keep from getting a snail infestation.

 

[Fat Homer]

^ Not sure where you can get snails, since i don't live in the US... but as for the snail infestation there's not real way to deal with it, unless you have a snail breeding tank setup specifically for the purpose of breeding them to infest...

But in all honesty, if you fed your puffer snails with every meal, you may find you don't have enough snails to have a full infestation?

 

[jeffers]

well im just asking cause at two stores i always see snails all over there tanks so i never buy plants from them or much of anything else. and i just didnt want lots of tiny little snails all over my tank lol.

 

[Fat Homer]

Yeah, i understand that most people wouldn't want a snail infestation in their main tank (me included), so personally i just setup a small tank purely for breeding snails as food for puffers, plus it works as a quarantine so i know the snails don't bring any nasties along with them...

Other than that, i guess if you decide to just chuck a few in your main tank you may find they'll have a chance to breed (given the puffer doesn't get them first), or you'll end up with a lot of empty shells at the end of the first night

Although in all honesty, its probably just easier to setup a small snail tank if you have the room, since even a small 5 - 10 gallon should be plenty if your only feeding one puffer... and the bonus is, if you ever decide your sick of keeping snails, you could always just dismantle the tank and get rid of any remaining snails inside...

 

[Pufferpunk]

This is a shoaling species & prefers to be in groups of 3 or more:
http://www.**************.com/forum/library/puffers-in-focus/sap/

Dentistry is inevitable:
http://www.**************.com/forum/library/hospital/dentistry/

 

[jeffers]

yes i saw that recently i was thinking about getting a few more. and even if i feed alot of snails it sounds like im going to have to clip the teeth anyway?

 

[Pufferpunk]

Probably, unless you can come up with enough snails to cover 90% of their diet.