Hi!
I'm in the process of getting a DP tank started. It's 36 litres (approx 10 gallons?) and it has been up and running for about a month now. Currently I have four platies in it to get it started, plus a lot of plants that need to do some growing.
But my question is about the snails - it seems to be a snail breeding farm from the looks of it and I'm a bit worried what will happen when I put DPs in it (thinking of getting three of them in a month or so). Is there a risk that they will eat too many snails? Do I need to clean out most of the snails before putting the DPs in the tank? The snails are the tiny kind, just a few millimetres in size.
Regards
Jennifer in Sweden

i used to breed snails in a big bowl, but got tired of how long it took them all to breed and grow, they weren't growing fast enough to provide the one or two snails a week i wanted, so i ended up collecting all my snails and putting them into the tank. I put about 40-60 snails in my tank. I think it took my puffer a couple of weeks to eradicate them all, but he didn't eat too much, he pretty much just ate until he got full, and then he'd play with them. He was in a continually full condition for those few weeks, but he didn't overeat

I registered to post pretty much the same question...

I was going to get a DP to get rid of my snail problem, but once I started to learn more about them I really got into to them, now I want to get a DP - not to eradicate the snails but because I got to enjoy them so much. there are some quite nice DP videos on youtube.

now I am concerned about having too many snails in the tank. it is a 180L densely planted tank with 8 tetras - some red shrimp and amanos.

I am afraid the DP will feed on the snails and get a poor diet, and also die from over feeding.

jenmad, i think there must be hundreds of little snails in the tank... if it took 2 weeks to get rid of 40 snails, my tank will take 4 months

any suggestions

Hi kunteper,

it wasn't my puffer that got rid of 40 snails in two weeks - I don't even have puffers yet It was carsona246 who has that greedy puffer. But it seems like it didn't overeat so I guess there's not a problem.

Regards
Jennifer in Sweden

I don't see that being a problem. I've read that other people have added DPs to an infested tank (usually as a result of a hitchhiker on a live plant) to completely get rid of them without it harming the DPs.

There's no problem with snails being the only thing you feed them, though they would enjoy variety if you want to do more than just snails after they clear out the pest snails.

As far as the tetras and shrimp, DPs like to nip other fish and may eat the shrimp. You may get lucky like I did and they wont eat your shrimp, but most people have reported their shrimp becoming expensive snacks for their DPs, which is why I tested with a ghost shrimp before I got my cherry shrimp.

I hope that helps!

Typically live worms or similarly spazzy foods cause puffers to overeat.... but an infestation of snails, they will deal with bit by bit, until the snails are eradicated. Seriously, DPs will eat snails WAY too small to breed, so they will kill all the snails over time. They even prefer the tiny ones. Just don't overstock, DPs like their 5 gallons of room each.

Just wanted to share my experience. I have a 15 gallon tank (formerly a community, now home to 4 DP's). I had two "Chinese Mystery Snails" and they bred before they passed on from using too soft water. I moved my community to a 30 gallon and left the 15 bubbles and filter running. As I tried to decide what to put in there, snails started BLOOMING. I had 5 one day...50 in 4 days and finally 100's in a week. I had heard of DP's and decided to give it a go.

I ordered 4 and got them in very nice shape from my LFS. I acclimated them via drip line in a huge glass pickle jar. I dropped them in about an hour later. They DESTROYED the snails, I mean OBLITERATED. within 60 mins.....None of the snails were much bigger than their eyeball. The DP's were happy, vigorous and settled quickly. They ate out of my fingers after a week and I started a separate 1 gallon snail tank to keep their food supply easy. Also got CA Blackworms (they will overeat these, as stated by Nick, be careful!) and am considering a 10 gallon tank for breeding them.

Good Luck!!