Dwarf Puffer Advice

[bagu]

i must say they do destroy snails =/

i had an infestation and 1 puffer in a 20gallon wiped them all out within a week or so lol

youd just see shells everywhere

 

[jennybugs]

Your dwarves wont mind sand or gravel (gravel is easier to clean ).

Males have wrinkles around their eyes and stripes on their bellies, but can only tell this when they are mature

I find sand much easier to clean actually You don't need to shove the syphon right into the sand like you do gravel...just swirly the syphon around about an inch or so above the sand and off you go

The dark belly strip isn't necessarily indicative of a male. The dominant puffer will more likely get a stripe and it can happen to a tank full of females (it did to me)

As for snails, I have mine in another aquarium and just let them get on with it. I have ramshorns and pond snails in one of my other 60L tanks and don't mind if they eat any plants. The fish in the tank don't bother them at all and the snails breed well. They do in my goldie tanks too so i have a n endless supply of the things

If you want to do a snail breeding tank I think you can just get a small container (clear sided preferably) and fill it with dechlorinated water and snails. Feed the tank with greens/snail tabs or such and keep on a well lit warm windowsill and the snails should do the rest

 

[bagu]

could i use a plastic tank you see around?

 

[jennybugs]

Yes I would say so...like the clear plastic 'hamster' boxes or something like that

 

[lilacamy931]

Ah that is what I have in preparation for snail breeding! On the kitchen window which gets a good source of sunlight. Are veggies such as lettuce and cucumber ok to do, as we don't have a garden for clippings. May also get algae wafers of sorts.

Didn't realise that on the dwarf puffers with the stripe, something new for me to learn today!

If you ended up with ramshorns and pond snails would it be recommended to have them in separate containers? Lastly how frequent on water changes.

(I have had problems with snails, ordered ramshorns, they died before getting to my doorstep, got apple snails half died on the way home the others did not survive, got a small batch of pond snails which emitted 3 egg sacks but I wonder now if they were egg sacks at all or something weirder... me being a fool fed half to the puffs and then the others died off..)

So hopefully with a new batch of ramshorns in a clean container they will get going!

 

[iSnail]

Lettuce & cucumber are fine but you might need to slightly blanch them to make them softer. Try fresh first and see how it goes. Boiled green veg like broccoli, beans, kale, spinach, dandelion leaves, etc... are enjoyed by snails too but make sure you take out any uneaten food after overnight. Supplement their diet with other fish food. Btw when I mentioned plant clippings in your snail hatchery, I meant aquatic plants like elodea, hygrophila for purifying the water and for snails to lay eggs

I prefer to use semi-transparent containers since too much light will trigger algal bloom. My windowsill gets the morning sun you see.

I keep both red ramshorn and bladder snails together. After some time, you might find one breeds better than the other but they can live together. Water changes in an unfiltered container - depends on how big the container is and how densely populated it is really. Mine are small (2L and 6L) and highly populated but fully stuffed with plants and I do water change every other day. I would say for a small starter culture, you can get away with a couple of water changes a week.

@m00se
Explosion of snail population is largely due to overfeeding. So you can easily keep a constant supply of snails for your DPs in your community tank. Just feed as much as your fish can eat and not let too much food dropping to the substrate then you have a controlled population

 

[lilacamy931]

Thanks iSnail, knowledge of all snail kind! Clippings - wow how dense am I? Not sure why I thought garden clippings. LOL

That is a really good informative post! The container I have is about an 8 litre, has a good place on my windowsil which would get light from morning to about midday So hopefully this is not too bad!

 

[iSnail]

Forgot to mention, pond snail egg sacks are like banana shape jelly. I used to keep them when I first started but I found them taking too long to hatch. Maybe I was impatient back then There should be quite a few eggs in each sack

 

[lilacamy931]

hmmmm...that doesn't sound like what I had perhaps that is why the remaining ponds passed on. Weird jelly like capsules that slowly turned amber over time.

Looking forward to getting a good batch of snails

 

[jennybugs]

I prefer to use semi-transparent containers since too much light will trigger algal bloom. My windowsill gets the morning sun you see.

That's interesting. I let a tub I had with breeding snails green up with algae as the snails ate down on it quite happily Different strokes, I guess

 

[iSnail]

I prefer to see the plants you see. The algae just smother my plants before the snails eat it

Oh, thanks for the tip on enriching brine shrimps btw

 

[lilacamy931]

thanks both for the snail tips, hopefully have better success!

Mainman is doing great, he really pigged out today and it was good to see him eating heartily. Received my betta (in another thread ) and got some free what think is Daphnia moving little blobs, will treat the puffs to it as well as plan on getting some live brineshrimp over the weekend.

Thank you all for all the support and guidance you have all been fab

 

[lilacamy931]

Well got the brine shrimp, the three in the main tank ate them so fast! When out more in they did not know where to look and so some have escaped into the tank. Calcifer the betta loves them as a treat. Mainman ate the two small ones, the two large are still now swimming around his tank. One of the large ones landed on his face and I don't think he knows what to make of them!