Safety of Apple Snails for Mbu puffer feeding

[Daily_Scrolling]

So I recently found out an aquatic shop about town away offers apple snails real cheap with a tag - for hungry puffers. The shop is well known for selling some rare puffers for specialist keepers (tho not the one I got my Mbu from haha).

I’m wondering if there’s a parasite risk in offering them live. I’m a medical doc by profession and am aware that snails are a common intermediary parasite host. A different store supplies paraguard but it’s expensive as hell for a bottle in my country and not viable long term.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[puffers4puffers]

IMHO
Your fear is warranted
You could freeze them to kill what’s potentially inside the snails
Or you could quarantine the snails feeding them a healthy diet to help purge the snails before feeding them to the mbu.
Just a thought
I have no scientific documentation to support my opinion
But I do have old fish

 

[Deadeye]

I’d expect a larger one to favor crustaceans and clams vs snails, though a large apple snail could work well.
If you were to breed your own snails, you would help to eliminate the risk of parasites. Being only intermediates, a snail population could not sustain parasites long term if not immediately passed on to the next host.

 

[puffers4puffers]

This fish was 3” in January of 2020

 

[Daily_Scrolling]

IMHO
Your fear is warranted
You could freeze them to kill what’s potentially inside the snails
Or you could quarantine the snails feeding them a healthy diet to help purge the snails before feeding them to the mbu.
Just a thought
I have no scientific documentation to support my opinion
But I do have old fish

Hey thanks for replying my really old post. I got mine at around 6 inches or so. Has grown happily into 10 plus inches since.

I found a readily trusted breeder of golden apples / mysteries. Did not realize they’re sometimes used as traditional medication in Malaysia. He loves crunching them down. Have been stockpiling some in an arowana tank in an effort to see if they’ll breed hehe

 

[Daily_Scrolling]

This fish was 3” in January of 2020

View attachment 1528072

What a beauty!

 

[Daily_Scrolling]

I’d expect a larger one to favor crustaceans and clams vs snails, though a large apple snail could work well.
If you were to breed your own snails, you would help to eliminate the risk of parasites. Being only intermediates, a snail population could not sustain parasites long term if not immediately passed on to the next host.

Yeah! Although it does try to hunt small crawfish now at 10 inches he actually rather likes the snails for some reason. Am growing a few in my arowana tank as a stockpile.

 

[puffers4puffers]

Hey thanks for replying my really old post. I got mine at around 6 inches or so. Has grown happily into 10 plus inches since.

I found a readily trusted breeder of golden apples / mysteries. Did not realize they’re sometimes used as traditional medication in Malaysia. He loves crunching them down. Have been stockpiling some in an arowana tank in an effort to see if they’ll breed hehe

How long did it take to grow from 6” to 10”?

 

[Daily_Scrolling]

How long did it take to grow from 6” to 10”?

got the little felllow in late April so 4 inches since. So around 5 months. Pictured here after a large meal haha. Considered adding sand into my pond but it often throws the parameters off a bit. Left the large pebbles in.