Grocery Store Clams for Amazon Puffers?

[Schwack]

I've had my group of amazon puffers for ~a month now and I'm starting to get a bit concerned about keeping their teeth under control. They've been systematically destroying all the ramshorn snails in my tank (the bottom looks like a snail graveyard now) and their teeth are nice and short still. I've got a nearly endless supply of ramshorns to feed them, but I was hoping to supplement with other crunchy foods. I know Hikari sells frozen clams on the halfshell, but I haven't had a chance to drive to my LFS to pick up a pack.

However, the other day I saw a bunch of reasonably small Manila clams at the grocery store. Since they're pretty cheap, I picked up 5 of the smallest clams to try out. Unfortunately, I'm not really sure how I should prep these guys for consumption by my fish, or if they're even suitable! Should I steam them first? Shell and offer them raw? I'm only out $1.50 if these don't work out and I figured worst case I can use the empty shells to try Repashy. My hope was that I could remove most of the meat from the shell and get them to scrape bits off, but I figured I'd check in here first.

Anyone have experience with grocery store clams and puffers?

Edited November 12, 2021 by Schwack

[NimbleWalrus]

• I see no reason not to. Manilas are a saltwater clam, but I can't imagine the tiny amount of saltwater in their body will negatively impact your tank. At most all I'd think you need to do is crack the shells on the clams, but that may not even be necessary. Your puffers will know a good meal when they see it and shouldn't have any trouble getting into them.

[eatyourpeas]

I feed my pea puffers marine snails, marine amphipods, and live krill without any issues. I think it is similar to feeding FW fish BBS which hatch in very salty water.

Edited November 13, 2021 by eatyourpeas

[Schwack]

I'm not super concerned about them being marine clams, a bit of salt in 40 gallons won't bother anybody. My biggest concern is preparation. I'm a bit of a weirdo among lifelong PNWesterners in that I don't eat seafood, so any prep is a mystery to me.

I ended up opting not to cook them in any way and instead moved them to the freezer based on a few old posts I found on a puffer forum. I figure a few days in the freezer and I'll be able to open em up and remove some of the raw meat to get the puffs to scrape the shells clean. They're such picky little buggers I'm guessing I'll have to hold off feeding for a few days to get them hungry enough for something new.

[eatyourpeas]

On 11/12/2021 at 9:01 PM, Schwack said:

They're such picky little buggers I'm guessing I'll have to hold off feeding for a few days to get them hungry enough for something new.

They are indeed!

You could try a nutcracker and just feed a portion each time, shell and all. I do not think cooking is necessary.

[Schwack]

On 11/12/2021 at 9:53 PM, eatyourpeas said:

They are indeed!

You could try a nutcracker and just feed a portion each time, shell and all. I do not think cooking is necessary.

Something like that is sort of the plan. I've managed to get them on frozen krill and, of course, frozen bloodworms, but I want to start working crunchy foods in to try and avoid having to trim teeth. Seems like clams and crab legs are the easiest way to do that, but crab is expensive! I'm hoping they'll take to the clams OK, if not, my next try will be repashy in a clam shell/on a rock. Anything to keep them working those tiny little teeth.