Puffers And Snails

[justinp]

How often do Puffers need to eat snails to wear down their teeth? Does the amount change with age? I currently feed my 2" Green Spotted Puffer Snails only once a week but fear this may not be enough...And does anyone have any experience with keeping GSP in Marine water when they reach adult size?

Thanks for your help

 

[kanzaris]

How often do Puffers need to eat snails to wear down their teeth? Does the amount change with age? I currently feed my 2" Green Spotted Puffer Snails only once a week but fear this may not be enough...And does anyone have any experience with keeping GSP in Marine water when they reach adult size?

Thanks for your help

Hi Brackman

My GSP is nearly a year old and I only feed him snails once a week or when I can get some from my lfs. I put some shells I collected on the beach in to the tank. (After boiling them) and my GSP likes to have a nibble on them.

Sabby

 

[SLC Flyfishing]

I have never had any problems with my GSP's teeth getting overgrown, I only fed him snails once every two months or so. Make sure there's other hard gritty type substances in the tank for the puffer to bite every once in a while and you will be fine. A good example would be sabby's seashells, I used a lava rock in my GSP tank because it had such a pourous surface that I figured it could double as a puffer chew toy and a nice home for nitrogen fixing bacteria.

I have had my GSP at full sea water level salinity for about a month now. He's doing great and I've noticed that he's much more active and aggressive at that salinity. (Something I'm sure is mostly due to his size and age)

Any other questions?

SLC

 

[AMS]

As SLC and sabby suggested shells and smearing food into porus rocks are good for puffers to nibble on. There are foods besides snails to wear down teeth such as frozen krill with the shell on, feeder shrimp, cocktail shrimp with shell on (read ingredients label before feeding foods used for human consumption), frozen cockle in shell, and bits of lobster or crab shells (with the meat smeared on bits of the shell).

I dont know why companies cant make frozen snails. Seems they can make everything else, but they skipped on a food that would probably produce lots of profits.

 

[neilw_uk]

I have just started breading snails for my puffers. Getting them from the LFS was very hard as the just cleaned them away.

I visited a new shop 2 weeks ago and they had a few in the tanks, so i asked if i could have them, to which they were please for me to take them away. I am using a food container at the moment with cling film on top with some holes to stop them escaping.. I have thrown in a few bits of lettuce and put them in some tank water which i change every 4 or 5 days and they have been at it like rabbits!! There is about 10+ nests (if thats way you call them) all with about 15 or so "to be snails"!!! It seems quite easy to bread your own, worth it if you keep puffers. Even if you are putting them in a salt tank I doubt they will last long enough to suffer from the salt if your puffers are anything like mine!!!!

If this is not an option then you can buy snails from ebay believe it or not!!

 

[timmystood]

I dont know why companies cant make frozen snails. Seems they can make everything else, but they skipped on a food that would probably produce lots of profits.

Exactly!! I think every Puffer keeper in the land would buy it!!

EDIT - I've e-mailed RUTO, the top frozen fish supplier in the world!! I asked them why frozen snails and frozen snail shells are not avaliable. I'll keep you updated with the response.