Which type of snail for fish food

[Mcgolg76]

All of my pest snails have been consumed and I want to set up a tank to breed snails for consumption.

In one tank I have a dwarf puffer
In my other tank I got 8 zebra loaches and a african brown knife to feed.


First which type of pest snail is best. I heard mts snails are too hard for a dwarf puffer.

Also is a five gallon tank big enough to breed them. Do I need a heater and filter? Does snail tank need to be cycled?

 

[maxwellag]

When I had dwarf puffers, they seemed to like pond snails best. I think it was because they were smallest and easiest to eat. You could get away with no heater or filter in a snail breeding tank because they have small bioloads. Also, they would eat algae and waste in the tank, so cleaning wouldn't be necessary (at least not for a while).

 

[wildroseofky]

I would say pond snails or ramshorn snails. They are the right size for the puffer and breed quickly. Yes, you need to cycle the tank. If your room stays warm you do not really need a heater. I have found ramshorns in my buckets I use for water changes when I throw extra plants in there to store for short times. You need some kind of filter or air stone to keep the water oxygenated. Maybe a sponge filter or at least an air pump with an air stone.

 

[flitabout]

I have a min tank with pond and ramshorn snails. I don't really do anything with it other than water changes it's a dirted planted tank with loads of floaters. I think I need to get a heater in it to get the ramshorn to breed but the pond snail don't care they breed faster than I can get them out of the tank. I don't worry to much about an air stone because all of my plants are pearling. Every couple of days I toss a few cichlid pellets or an algae wafer in to feed them. It does have a light over it but it was just a cheap one that I got at the hardware store. Other than that I don't do anything with it. It's loaded with green spot algae on the plastic. But the snails are happy and breeding like rabbits. Here's my set up.

 

[Mcgolg76]

Might have over did things a drop. Just bought a 10 gallon tank to breed the snails

 

[Fishinfreak]

Might have over did things a drop. Just bought a 10 gallon tank to breed the snails

Sadly yes. I've actually considered setting one up in one of those giant cheeseball containers (I saw someone use one of these as a tank for guppies that had to be taken out of a tank that had RCS), or something like a topfin 2g betta tank

 

[Mcgolg76]

Or can use this as an excuse to move my. Dwarf puffer to a bigger tank. And get him a fried and breed snail in 5 f

 

[Fishinfreak]

Or can use this as an excuse to move my. Dwarf puffer to a bigger tank. And get him a fried and breed snail in 5 f

So the puffer is in a 5g? If so, sure, that would be good, and you could get two friends if there was only 1 or less male(s)

 

[flitabout]

That works too! I just used what I had in the house and I did it mainly for a place to put tiny plants and then I realized the my assassins were decimating my ramshorns. I pulled all of the ramshorn and tossed them into to the mini

 

[Mcgolg76]

Currently have the dp with a few shrimp in a 5g. Still can't figure out if it is male or female

 

[Fishinfreak]

Currently have the dp with a few shrimp in a 5g. Still can't figure out if it is male or female

Males have a golden belly, while females have a white belly and sometimes a golden patch on the throat. As for the shrimp, I would regime them as I have seen them slaughtered by DPs on YouTube