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I am going to get some Dwarf Puffers in the near future and I am going to ffed them ghost shrimp for treats.
I will feed them frozen bloodworms also. I am deathly afraid of snails and worms...all of them. I will try to feed them snails and worms sometimes but I will have to get someone to come over and do it for me.
Here are my questions---

1---***I thought about putting them in my 5 gallon hex acyrlic tank. Is this ok?
2---**How many can I put in here?
3---**How much do they cost?

I will be using these as food for my puffers.

4---***I understand that all I need for breeding the snails is to put something over the filter intake. Correct?

5---***Will a form of worms or "creatures" grow in this tankbecuse of the moss and snails? Ive read about this happening somewhere.

My idea is to out the shrimp in the tank and hope they breed and take them out for food as I need some.

6---***Will a crab work in this tank for cleanup? What can I use for clean up? Do I even need anything? I didnt read theyd work as clean up. I am just wondering if they will.

I will put Java moss in the tank also.

7---***What should I expect from this tank?

Some puffers eat ghost shrimp and some don't. You'll need little ghost shrimp or they'll just kill the big ones and leave them. Probably easier to buy these guys than raise them but alot of people leave ghost shrimp in their puffer tank to clean up excess food and waste. Shrimp add little to the bioload and are great at eating leftover food. To breed them you need a tank without predators(most fish will go after baby ghost shrimp), lots of hiding places such as mosses, caves, over turned small flower pots, a filter, and feed them sinking foods. Females will carry the eggs around with them so any snails in the tank won't have a chance to eat the eggs like they do with fish eggs. All shrimp are sensitive to ammonia and nitrites so they require a cycled clean tank. Ghost shrimp cost 25 cents each at the store near me and .50 at the other store. I have 5 in a 5g with guppy fry and one has eggs.

To grow pest snails all you need is water and fish food. They are nowhere near as sensitive as shrimp and will happily multiply provided they are wet and have food. I just used a 2g fish bowl set under the tank in the stand. Something with a filter will stay clean longer so you don't have to do as many water changes but you don't have to cover the filter or anything. There's nothing you could cover it with that would keep out tiny baby snails while still letting water in and they'll just climb up to the out take and go in that way. You cannot grow snails or baby ghost shrimp in the same tank as puffers. They will spend the whole day hunting them down and eliminate them.

Don't use a crab for cleanup. Just use the shrimp. Most crabs need to leave the water or require saltwater and some will eat pest snails.

Last edited by sham at 24-Nov-2005 22:37

2---**How many can I put in 5 gallons?
5---***Will a form of worms or "creatures" grow in this tank because of the moss and snails? Ive read about this happening somewhere.


I meant to ask what do I ned to bree the shrimp?

Thanks Sham!!

2---**How many can I put in 5 gallons?
5---***Will a form of worms or "creatures" grow in this tank because of the moss and snails? Ive read about this happening somewhere.

I'm not sure how many just ghost shrimp you can fit in a 5g hex. It's rather tall and shrimp don't really use the upper levels. Maybe with some rocks, tall driftwood, or other decorations you could make it more effective. Like I said above I have 5 in my 5g with tiny fish. If you mean snails add one and you will have 100. They multiply based on the amount of food in the tank and you can have more than enough in a 5g.

Planaria(teeny tiny white worms) will show up if you let a tank build up too much waste or excess food. They can show up in any tank with any type of aquatic creature or even an empty tank with something decomposing in it. They also prefer a tank with little water movement. There are no specific visible worms or critters I know of that show up only because of snails. Might be 1 or 2 microscopic parasites carried by snails but you won't see those and that doesn't seem to be common at all.

That may be wahts it the hex now...the worms I mean

anyway, i just cleaned that tank all out for the shrimp. hope lfs has them. what size do i need to get?

Thought about putting pregnant Lb's in there with the shrimp until they deliver. will this be ok?? will the lb's eat the shrimp eggs? im guessing them will. how fast do the shrimp multiply? can you tell male from fems??

someone please answer. im going to lfs Friday.


Last edited by ladiejl at 25-Nov-2005 02:01

I replied to your hospital post and you probably have planaria. There are other possibilities but it sounds like planaria. Also shrimp will not survive your current tank conditions. They are more sensitive than fish. Nitrates in the 40+ range and any ammonia, even just .25, will probably kill them.

Adult fish or large baby fish will eat baby shrimp. The hardest part about raising ghost shrimp is keeping the babies from being lunch. That's why the only thing in the tank with my shrimp right now are 1/2" baby guppies. You can't tell male from female shrimp very easily unless the female is carrying eggs. Even ghost shrimp in the stores are usually carrying eggs. If you can find one or two big females with bright green lumps(eggs) under her body and then get a couple smaller ones without eggs you should end up with baby ghost shrimp. Provided your water quality is ok and you have nothing in there to eat the baby shrimp.

im going to put them in the 5 gallon. i just cleaned and reset up this tank tonight. it is empty but running. i used the same filter that was orginally on the tank. rinsed it out in tank water. so the tank is fresh and clean. if i keep up with water changes, like 50 percent every other day, will they be ok? the tank never had ammo build up in it before. it had a male betta and 2 tetras for about 2 weeks and ammo never showed up.

A tank left for more than 24hrs without an ammonia source will lose most or all of it's bacteria and be uncycled. If your adding just shrimp the nitrates will not build up as quickly as with fish and so water changes once a week or every other week will probably be fine if your not over feeding. So long as you've changed out most or all of the water to bring the nitrates down near zero in the first place. If you left the tank empty you will need water changes every other day to keep the ammonia near zero and the shrimp alive until it cycles again.