CJs Aquatics Posted August 17, 2022 Share Posted August 17, 2022 Hello all, I’m posting this on the experiments tab of the forum because in my mind it would be a bit of an experiment as it’s something that doesn’t appear to be widely practiced. I have a picky eater puffer. Recently he became ill and one of the best ways that was sighted to treat his illness was if he ingested the correct medication, the problem with this is, so far he is only interested in live snails. My question is as follows: I have seen people specifically who keep reptiles dust crickets and mealworms with calcium supplements to aid in there pets diet, has anyone came up with any sort of an edible adhesive or means to dust snails or there shells with supplements or medication? I would imagine it would have to be relatively sticky perhaps a honey consistency, and obviously wouldn’t last long if at all, but the random thought was, coat the snail shells with something, then dust them with meds, drop them in the water, and he ingests them and some of the meds. Whatever he doesn’t ingest dissolves in the water column to be used that way. Essentially if this were possible he would at least ingest some rather then none at all. I look forward to any stories, insights,ideas, or responses at all, thanks in advanced. -CJ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLFishChik Posted August 17, 2022 Share Posted August 17, 2022 (edited) long shot here, but... (hope this makes sense) what if you mixed the meds in with a Repashy gel and then coated the snail in it? Edited August 17, 2022 by FLFishChik 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJs Aquatics Posted August 17, 2022 Author Share Posted August 17, 2022 On 8/17/2022 at 3:46 PM, FLFishChik said: long shot here, but... (hope this makes sense) what if you mixed the meds in with a Repashy gel and then coated the snail in it? Yes, so this is along the lines of what I was thinking, I saw another prominent YouTuber who basically created artificial snails using oyster shells, and repashy. Your saying medication in repashy, and paint it on live snails shells if I’m understanding correctly. I like this idea, and I think it would work and perhaps may even transition my puffer into eating things other then live foods. It’s the front running idea for sure. I was just wondering if anyone had any ideas perhaps that didn’t use extra food additives as in the long run it will add significantly more cost to the equation and extra steps to an already tedious process. Kinda like for lack of a better analogy, painting nails. You paint the nail with something then if u want to add glitter or sparkles or whatever it sticks. In this equation the snail is the nail, and the meds are the glitter, I’m looking for ideas of things to make it stick. I Love the idea and thank you for the input 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLFishChik Posted August 17, 2022 Share Posted August 17, 2022 (edited) On 8/17/2022 at 3:55 PM, CJs Aquatics said: Yes, so this is along the lines of what I was thinking, I saw another prominent YouTuber who basically created artificial snails using oyster shells, and repashy. Your saying medication in repashy, and paint it on live snails shells if I’m understanding correctly. I like this idea, and I think it would work and perhaps may even transition my puffer into eating things other then live foods. It’s the front running idea for sure. I was just wondering if anyone had any ideas perhaps that didn’t use extra food additives as in the long run it will add significantly more cost to the equation and extra steps to an already tedious process. Kinda like for lack of a better analogy, painting nails. You paint the nail with something then if u want to add glitter or sparkles or whatever it sticks. In this equation the snail is the nail, and the meds are the glitter, I’m looking for ideas of things to make it stick. I Love the idea and thank you for the input Is it a powder type med? And if there was a edible 'adhesive' so that you could sprinkle on the med.. wouldn't you still have to paint the adhesive onto the snail before dusting it with med? Edited August 17, 2022 by FLFishChik 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted August 17, 2022 Share Posted August 17, 2022 Seachem Focus as a binder? On 8/17/2022 at 12:46 PM, FLFishChik said: what if you mixed the meds in with a Repashy gel and then coated the snail in it? What if you added the snail bits to repashy to get them to try to bite that? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJs Aquatics Posted August 17, 2022 Author Share Posted August 17, 2022 Yes powdered medication, submitting it again because for some reason it sent as hidden (idek why) lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted August 17, 2022 Share Posted August 17, 2022 Pea puffers might eat bloodworms, so that might be your best bet to try to soak them in the meds and then feed. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLFishChik Posted August 17, 2022 Share Posted August 17, 2022 On 8/17/2022 at 4:04 PM, nabokovfan87 said: Seachem Focus as a binder? What if you added the snail bits to repashy to get them to try to bite that? oh... crush the snail, roll it around the Repashy and feed it to the puffer? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted August 17, 2022 Share Posted August 17, 2022 (edited) On 8/17/2022 at 1:06 PM, FLFishChik said: oh... crush the snail, roll it around the Repashy and feed it to the puffer? Yeah. I am trying to think... bottom scratcher (has insects) or community blend might be the one to try it with. Hard to say. Edited August 17, 2022 by nabokovfan87 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJs Aquatics Posted August 18, 2022 Author Share Posted August 18, 2022 All of these ideas seem feasible, it’s for a dragon puffer who only seems to eat live snails and needs to be treated with kanaplex, I’m not familiar with the focus product but as of now I think the idea of perhaps painting on medicated repashy onto some snail shells seems like a decent one. All good ideas honestly but for this specific situation that will probably be the course I will have to take. Some of the other ideas seem very plausible for those with not so picky eaters or perhaps needing supplementation of some kind, perhaps a more detailed experiment to be done in the future, I feel this simple topic could have many useful applications in peoples aquariums. Thank you to all who responded I will try to update in the future as to how things went. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted August 18, 2022 Share Posted August 18, 2022 @mountaintoppufferkeeper Any ideas that you've tried with similar species? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mountaintoppufferkeeper Posted August 18, 2022 Share Posted August 18, 2022 @nabokovfan87 I haven't for that type of med but I've used the repashy delivery system for some items. @CJs Aquatics id also consider getting the meds in or on nightcrawlers essentially a reactive steak. I've never seen a Pao not crush worms. The movement fires mine off even more than snails. I've also not medicated worms for them before. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJs Aquatics Posted August 18, 2022 Author Share Posted August 18, 2022 @mountaintoppufferkeeper thanks for the input, I’m actually setting up a farm for red wigglers right now however I must confess I haven’t tried feeding them yet bc the snails have been so easy. Perhaps I will play around with potentially gut loading the crawlers or just medicating them somehow in general as well 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mountaintoppufferkeeper Posted August 18, 2022 Share Posted August 18, 2022 Its a whole different deal with worms. Hairys, palustris, t.miurus all go crazy on them. I raise the worms on spinach etc and rinse them in a container of water with garlic extract and vitachem figure it doesn't hurt Palustris fry 0 hesitation T.miurus not pao but same idea 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJs Aquatics Posted August 18, 2022 Author Share Posted August 18, 2022 @mountaintoppufferkeeper you’ve sold me this is pretty awesome. Gonna have to see how my puffer Jabba does with worms. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mountaintoppufferkeeper Posted August 18, 2022 Share Posted August 18, 2022 (edited) Its a whole different and ridiculous feeding response. I'd bet Jabba isn't picky with them. They dance around and keep going until fully consumed. I'd still work in shelled foods i have snails dwarf crayfish and shrimp growing for them as well. Worms are the crowd favorite in the puffer colonies here though Edited August 18, 2022 by mountaintoppufferkeeper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJs Aquatics Posted August 18, 2022 Author Share Posted August 18, 2022 the worms I have I haven’t fed bc im unaware of what they were raised with/ in. I didn’t want to contaminate him somehow but I think since he’s gotta go through meds anyway I may let him try one out for breakfast and see how he does. His feeder worms I’m gonna try to mimic your idea with spinach and garlic and vitachem. I considered setting up a different one and trying to feed them fish foods to see how that does also but that’s a whole different experiment lol thank you for the input and im sure Jabba will be happy, at least I hope so. I appreciate the advice 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy's Fish Den Posted August 31, 2022 Share Posted August 31, 2022 Using the logic that whatever the prey item eats, the predator will then get as well, what if you mixed the med into some repashy and then fed the repashy to the snails. Feed the snails to the puffer and puffer should then ingest the med. it would probably have to be something that you put the medicated repashy in the tank overnight and first thing the next morning pull a bunch of snails out to feed the puffer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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