New 5 gallon

[belmont0182]

so i am setting up a tank and im thinking about putting two green puffers in it. I want to know how i would keep them healthy and well fed...i was wondering if i could put some of those snails that people hate that reproduce assexually, and if the puffers would be able to feed off of them.

also i have a piece of pottery that i made in art class last year that would look great in my tank, it is made out of white clay and has glaze on it, the pottery has been fired and should not soak up water. does anyone know if the pottery will harm my tank?

thanks all

[Duke107]

I have small clay pot half buried in my tank never had any problems. Good luck!

[TKOS]

Your tank really isn't big enough for those puffers. And they will eat all of the snails before they really have a chance to reproduce. You should be growing snails long before you get puffers anyway so you have enough food for them.

What is in the glaze you used. Glazes are generally made from metals and many metals, such as copper can be harmful to an aquarium.

[Oakley]

I agree with TKOS, A 5g tank is no where near big enough to keep 2 green puffers, and the snails would not make it through the day, if you need more info about pufferfish there is a great little forum that dedicates its self to all that is puffer :)

the link is......

http://puffer.proboards2.com/index.cgi

Hope this helps

[belmont0182]

thanks guys, i feared that my tank would be to small, oh well ill just get a school of fish then...

i dont recall what kind of glaze we used in that class, it did say that it was safe to use as dinnerware for humans, i assumed that if it is safe for me to drink out of it wouldnt hurt the fish. i dont plan on stocking it for a while anyway...are there any tests that could be done to see if it is affecting my tank?

Would those snails be harmfull to my tank if i put them in it anyway? i wonder if they would be a good cleanup crew?

by the way, i just bought a new Aqua-Tech 5-15 powerfilter for the tank, does anyone have any experience with this filter... i am thinking that it will do great in my 5 gallon considering that it is rated for a tank as large as a 15 gallon.

[OrionGirl]

If you can provide live foods (snails, and live brine initially, then snails and prepared foods like blood worms, frozen brine, etc) in vast quantities, a pair of dwarf puffers should be okay in there. I'm often conflicted about keeping them in a small tank, since they need lots of food and very clean water, but if you're willing to feed them often and be on a strict maintenance schedule, it will work. The dwarfs are very cute and personable, only get to about 1 inch in size, and as adults will eat most meaty foods and snails. They also are not as prone to beak overgrowth as many other puffers can be, so the need for lots of crunchy foods is not as great. Tankmates probably should be avoided, since puffers can shred fins easily. A pair of otos may work, as will large ghost shrimp--though the shrimp may be snacked on by the puffers.

[belmont0182]

what type of snails would they eat? i cant afford to be buying those $1.50 mystery snails all the time, brine shrimp would not be a problem nor will any other pre-packaged food. i dont know what live brine is...i also wouldnt have a problem getting ghost shrimp every once and a while cause they are really cheap. i could also feed them white cloud minnows i can get those 8 for $1...as i stated earlier i just bought a power filter that shouldnt have a problem with that size tank.

[OrionGirl]

The dwarf puffers do better with smaller snails. I feed mine common pond snails (shaped like the ramshorns, but stay smaller and are rounder) and MTS--they don't actually crunch the shell as much, just suck the snails out. The live brine shrimp and live blood worms is all mine would eat as juveniles. By about 6 months, they'd eat frozen community formula foods, frozen blood worms and frozen brine shrimp. So, if you check with the LFS and see them eating, they should be okay.

[Aquarius0015]

Whenever I go to Petsmart, the fish section employees are always willing to give me about a dozen unwanted baby mystery snails. I add them to my 5 gallon to give the Paradise fish a little treat. He loves sucking the baby snails out of their shells, and the shrimps get the leftovers.

Luckily my p-fish isn't able to eat the adult mystery snails.

Anyway, the point of the story is that your LFS is probably more than willing to give you free baby snails if you ask politely. I wouldn't bother trying to breed them, too much work.

[OrionGirl]

Agree with the above, if you're feeding them as a treat or for the dwarf puffers. I do not think you can keep most other puffers weel enough fed and trimmed beaks with snails offered only a few times a week. Mine need crunchies--either snails, crab in the shell, mussels, etc every day, or their beak starts getting too long.

[TKOS]

If you do decide to go for dwarf puffers I would suggest getting the live food ready in advance. Setup a brine shrimp tank, setup a small snail tank. For snails a big icecream container with a few live plants is great. Add some veggies ina dn the snails will ahve food. A little gravel is good too. Change the water a bit every week. When you need to feed them to the snails put a piece of lettuce in. The next day it will be covered in snails.

The dwarfs are super cute

[Oakley]

I have dwarf puffers in my tank, they love bloodworm, i have been fortunate in that they dont mind if they are frozen ones or live ones, the funniest thing with them is that they eat so many, that their bellys become nearly as big as them, they also dont move about very fast at all after feeding, they kind of remind me of me lol fat, slow and lazy after a meal :)

I love to watch them curled up on leaves fast asleep too, other brush into them and they still dont wake, infact they are always the last ones to wake in the morning too when i open the curtains.

They are living with my other fish with no problem at all, but then again i dont have any slow moving or long finned fish in my tank.

Snails the size of their eyes are a great meal for them, but if the bigger ones are the only ones you can get, they will just like orion girl said, suck them out of the shell.

They have massive amounts of personlity, just watch out when vacumning the sub, as they are very nosey and seem to have no fear, i can just see one of them making it up the spout very easy if you dont have eyes everywhere.

[travelinman1969]

On the filter, make sure you have a long skinny screwdriver. After about 6 months the impeller will not want to turn when you clean the filter and plug it back in, so you have to give it a jump start with the screwdriver, and I had a 20-40, for my 10 gallon, that I just threw away. It would stop working without turning it off.

[belmont0182]

hey guy thanks for all your help

i am sorry that i bothered you all, i decided to fill the tank with a small school of fish instead...prob zebra danios...anyway thanks for helping me out