How to Breed Pond Snails for Your Freshwater Puffer
I like to keep a variety of snails on hand for my puffers, including pond snails (also known as bladder snails), Ramshorn snails and Mystery snails. There many different species of pond snails, but most of them look almost identical, which makes it hard to tell them apart – this is why I am using the blanket term, pond snail, to refer to any snail that has a clear brown shell with black spots, a pointed spire and is less than 25mm in size. I used to have a lot of difficulty getting my snails colonies started – I still jokingly call myself the worst snails breeder, ever. It seemed like everyone else was always having a problem with an exploding colony of pest snails [...]
Categories: Puffer Care, Puffer Diet Tags: apple snails, aquatic snails, bladder snails, breeding pest snails for puffer food, coldwater snailsa, how to breed snails for puffer food, mystery snails, pest snails, pest snails in aquarium, pond snails, ramshorn snails, snail colony for puffer, snails for puffer teeth
How to Feed a Stubborn Freshwater Pufferfish Snails
Sometimes, it can be very difficult to feed snails to a new freshwater pufferfish. In fact, many will not eat for a week or so because they are still recovering from the stress of transport, and the completely foreign environment – this also includes normally enticing fare, like frozen blood worms and shrimp as well. However, if you have already given your puffer adequate time to settle in to his new home, then here are a few tips to help you jumpstart your puffer’s appetite for snails again. 1. Smash the snails. This has worked for me quite a few times – for snails with a weaker shell, like pond snails, this is really easy to do with your fingers. However, if you don’t [...]
Top 3 Hard Foods for Freshwater Pufferfish
It’s very important to offer your freshwater pufferfish a selection of hard, crunchy foods on a regular basis so that you don’t end up having fish problems with an overgrown beak. If their beaks get too long, pufferfish will slowly starve to death because they can’t chew their food. 1. Snails. There are many species of snails to choose from that are perfect for small to midsized freshwater pufferfish. Many pet stores will give away pest snails species for free, like the Malaysian Trumpet Snail, common pond snails, and the occasional ramshorn snail if you ask them nicely on a slow day. I recommend staying away from the trumpet snails because they have very hard shells, which could potentially lead to a cracked beak. [...]
