FrozenFins Posted January 27, 2022 Share Posted January 27, 2022 I have an aquarium all setup and newly scaped that homed my betta, Hugo. However after a rough battle with finrot for most of his life his immune system gave out. His tank has been sitting empty. Its a 5 gallon aquarium and the plan is to do a pea puffer tank. However I have some questions... I have a neritie snail in the tank currently. Do you think nerite snails are big enough for a pea puffer to pass on. I have a few other aquariums the nerite can go in if need be. Algae Eaters? Theres some hair algae that I've been dealing with. Amano Shrimp sure would eat some up. However do you think an amano shrimp would live hapily with a pea puffer. Of course it depends on the puffer, but the average puffer. Amano Shrimp I thought could be big enough and I've seen mixed reviews online about this. Your thoughts? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H.K.Luterman Posted January 27, 2022 Share Posted January 27, 2022 I have kept a nerite snail safely with my pea puffer; I think the shape of the shell makes it harder to get at them. However, every puffer's going to be different and you may end up with one that figures out how to murderize a nerite. Same with amanos. When my puffer was younger he lived with an amano who had been living in the tank before he was added. I moved the amano after a while to another tank. Then a year or so later added another amano to the puffer's tank and he killed it. So the answer for both is IT DEPENDS. You might have better luck if the nerite and amanos are already in the tank before the puffer, but it's a risk regardless. I have just resigned myself to the fact that his tank will always have algae and I just manually remove as much as I can. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keeg Posted January 27, 2022 Share Posted January 27, 2022 in my experience, pea puffers are little jerks that'll attack anything that moves. I feel your best course of action would to remove the hair algae and balance everything out, then try a pea puffer. if it helps, I got rid of my hair algae by letting my duck weed grow back 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrozenFins Posted January 27, 2022 Author Share Posted January 27, 2022 @Keeg The hairalgae isnt bad and ive been removing it probably once a week. Currently in the midst of trying to balance it, after every waterchange it gets better. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer V Posted January 27, 2022 Share Posted January 27, 2022 I love when people post about pea puffers because I'm obsessed with mine and love talking about them but @H.K.Luterman is absolutely right -- it depends and it's a gamble. Mine murdered the nerite I had in the tank before them overnight before I even knew what was happening and they terrorized the cherry shrimp as well. I think one of the keys to having pea puffers with friends is to have a large enough tank so that everyone has their happy place. A 5g wouldn't be big enough to do that so you might be better off just having one little guy by himself. They do get bored easily, so make sure you're ready to change up the tank every so often to keep him stimulated. I did have a huge algae situation in my puffer tank that I took care of by adjusting the light so maybe try that and see if it gets better. Good luck with your sweet pea! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H.K.Luterman Posted January 27, 2022 Share Posted January 27, 2022 On 1/26/2022 at 10:10 PM, Jennifer V said: I did have a huge algae situation in my puffer tank that I took care of by adjusting the light so maybe try that and see if it gets better. This is what I opted to do. I have a pretty dim light on his tank and only have it set for 5 hrs a day. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrozenFins Posted January 27, 2022 Author Share Posted January 27, 2022 @Jennifer V I'm thinking ill just remove the nerite and forget about the amano shrimp. Its a fluval spec 5 gallon, the light is wayy to bright IMO. Especially for my lowtech setups. Usually I have paper over the lid to dim the light, which does a great job. However there was a week where the paper was taken off and I forgot to put it back on. I added fertilizer for tha plants and BAM ALGAE. Not surprised, I've always had trouble with the light. The algaes been getting better, limited lighting to 8hrs a day seems to have helped. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Levi_Aquatics Posted January 27, 2022 Share Posted January 27, 2022 I would probably move the snail if you can. My pea puffer has eaten some pretty large ramshorn snails. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JettsPapa Posted January 27, 2022 Share Posted January 27, 2022 I've only been keeping pea puffers for about a year, since two were given to me. I put them in my 40 gallon community tank. I haven't noticed them bothering the mature amano shrimp or the nerite snails. They have kept the rams horn and bladder snail populations under control though. They stay fat, in spite one of them only occasionally eating frozen blood worms and the other one never eating them. I also have a thriving colony of cull neocaridina shrimp in the tank, so I suspect they supplement their diets with the occasional baby shrimp, and maybe amano shrimp larvae. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrozenFins Posted January 28, 2022 Author Share Posted January 28, 2022 (edited) @H.K.Luterman @Jennifer V Any fun enrichement ideas for the pea puffer? I'm thinking I'll feed him all sorts of live foods (snails, BBS, in the summer mosquito larvae, and the odd time live black worms). The live snails and live bbs will be fed I'm thinking a few times a week. I found today 3 baby bladder snails that must have come in with the plants so I'm sure he'll have a fun time hunting them down. Edited January 28, 2022 by FrozenFins 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eatyourpeas Posted January 28, 2022 Share Posted January 28, 2022 I love the little peas! Mine eat scuds as well as the foods mentioned above, as long as they are live. Both are now rooming with Neocaridina shrimp, Amano, and Nerite snails. Bladder and Ramshorn are snacks. 🐡🐌 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H.K.Luterman Posted January 28, 2022 Share Posted January 28, 2022 On 1/27/2022 at 6:49 PM, FrozenFins said: @H.K.Luterman @Jennifer V Any fun enrichement ideas for the pea puffer? I'm thinking I'll feed him all sorts of live foods (snails, BBS, in the summer mosquito larvae, and the odd time live black worms). The live snails and live bbs will be fed I'm thinking a few times a week. I found today 3 baby bladder snails that must have come in with the plants so I'm sure he'll have a fun time hunting them down. Definitely give live food when you can. Mine LOVES mosquito larvae. I like to try to hide the snails when I drop them in so he has to really hunt for them. I do change up his scape now and then but for the most part I watch from a distance - my guy is extremely shy and seems happiest if I stay away from his tank. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eatyourpeas Posted January 28, 2022 Share Posted January 28, 2022 (edited) Miss Ethel turned the Mystery snail's foot into a doily, with her beak used as pinking shears! Size reference: Edited January 28, 2022 by eatyourpeas 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer V Posted January 28, 2022 Share Posted January 28, 2022 On 1/27/2022 at 5:57 PM, H.K.Luterman said: Definitely give live food when you can. Mine LOVES mosquito larvae. I like to try to hide the snails when I drop them in so he has to really hunt for them. I do change up his scape now and then but for the most part I watch from a distance - my guy is extremely shy and seems happiest if I stay away from his tank. Do you have any floating plants in the tank? My guy became much more active and confident when I added some. On 1/27/2022 at 5:49 PM, FrozenFins said: @H.K.Luterman @Jennifer V Any fun enrichement ideas for the pea puffer? I'm thinking I'll feed him all sorts of live foods (snails, BBS, in the summer mosquito larvae, and the odd time live black worms). The live snails and live bbs will be fed I'm thinking a few times a week. I found today 3 baby bladder snails that must have come in with the plants so I'm sure he'll have a fun time hunting them down. Live foods are a great idea so you're definitely on the right track. I try to add as many plants as I can and rearrange the tank a bit so mine have new things to explore. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrozenFins Posted January 28, 2022 Author Share Posted January 28, 2022 @Jennifer V at this very moement the aquarium doesnt have floating plants. However the plan is to get Amazon Frogbit for this tank when it becomes instock. I'll probably use it as an excuse to make a big plant order. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer V Posted January 29, 2022 Share Posted January 29, 2022 On 1/28/2022 at 2:57 PM, FrozenFins said: @Jennifer V I'll probably use it as an excuse to make a big plant order. Big plant orders are never a bad thing!😊 You'll have to start a journal about your pea puffer adventure! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrozenFins Posted January 29, 2022 Author Share Posted January 29, 2022 I have a pre-exsisting journal I use to update all my aquariums. I will probably update on there. Heres a link: 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrozenFins Posted January 29, 2022 Author Share Posted January 29, 2022 I called around to all the fish stores in winnipeg to see what there stock was like for pea puffers. Thankfully one of them had them in stock. It was one that I've never been to. The tanks were clean, prices were a lot cheaper then I thought, fish were healthy, had a great selection of livebearers. I picked up my new pea puffer as well as an Anubias and some frozen brine shrimp for the puffer. The pea puffer is hiding and I turned the lights off. I'll get pictures of him once he feels more comfortable. The anubias I got I glued onto one of the rocks. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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