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[APD] Re: Re: Micro plant tank ideas



>>Quite a number of dwarf puffer (Carinotetraodon travancoricus, the only
puffer small enough for such tanks)  keepers set small planted tanks for
them, with Ghost or Amano or even Red Cherry shrimp without problems.  A few
have reported shrimp being eaten, but the majority seem to have few
problems.  I don't know what would happen with fasting fish during absences.
I have not been brave enough to try myself, but my dwarves are going to move
to a larger tank - which already has Amanos - so I will find out for myself
soon.  The dwarves cannot bite into most shells, but do eat snails readily,
by the same technique Clown Loaches use - bit and tug and twist at the flesh
of the snail.<<

Then mine must be genetic mutants. I have 12 of them, and I feed them shrimp
and snails. I have watched them sneak up on a shrimp  and snap it, what
looks like breaking it's back. It then take swipes at it pulling off little
chunks. The only saving grace is these Indian dwarf puffers are slow. They
do attack snails from the opening in the shell, but are perfectly capable of
breaking the snails shell, eventually. Baby snails they swallow whole. I
have never observed them pulling and twisting the flesh of the snail. What I
have observed is them slowly encircling the snail until finally making a
quick jab making a clear bite. Not a twist and pull!  I put these puffers in
a 100 gallon tank that had become infested with snails. Literally hundreds
of snails. The tank is now completly snail free. I have to put snails in the
tank from other aquariums just to feed them. I also watched them eat flat
worms that were three times as long as the fish, in a serious of bites.

As far as I know, these dwarf puffers have a "beak" just like their larger
cousins. Or am I incorrect?  The biggest difference I see between these
dwarfs and their larger cousins is they do not cause bodily harm to each
other.  When I do a water change, they actually school together!

Robert Hudson

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