Shadow Posted July 22, 2023 Share Posted July 22, 2023 As many have before me, I have a few snail problems... I know @Guppysnail would say otherwise, but been interested in murder beans for a while now. They seem super interactive and also LOVE snails. I remember watching @DansFish talk about feeding habits and saying to keep 6+ together as they tend to do better in larger groups. Smaller groups they can be aggressive to one another. Curious if they would do well in a planted tank and also if a 20 gal would be ok? Just thinking on what my next fish room tank addition might be. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllFishNoBrakes Posted July 22, 2023 Share Posted July 22, 2023 (edited) I’ve had my Pea’s for probably a year and a half now. -6 in a 29 gallon. Started with 8, but 2 didn’t make it super early on. The other 6 have thrived from the beginning. -29 gallon is planted with cO2 -Started out with a pretty big colony of orange shrimp (mutation from my cherry shrimp) all was well for a long time, and then shrimp numbers started to dwindle. I assume most of the shrimplets were getting picked off, and over time the older adults died off. Still have a handful of shrimp in there, but the colony doesn’t “thrive” -Overall, they’ve been pretty easy. Mine get fed bloodworms and snails. I haven’t invested the time to get them onto things like Vibra Bites -I was nervous before getting them, but glad I took the jump! They’re really no different than my other fish except that they need bloodworms -I didn’t do the full med trio on them, but I did do a round of Paracleanse. -If you’re on the fence I say go for it! They’re the easiest puffer out there and they’re super fun to watch and interact with. Edited July 22, 2023 by AllFishNoBrakes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nabokovfan87 Posted July 22, 2023 Share Posted July 22, 2023 I had some in a 29G. They did not do well. The issue for me was that they did not have enough line of sight breaks. I would recommend a heavily planted (to the waterline) aquascape. Something with swim-throughs and breaks that give the fish a place to call their own zone as well as escape to. During feeding, aggression will be at it's worst and that's where some of the key issues show up. It's not the type of fish, in my experience, where they do well with just tossing food in and calling it good. Learning to feed them using pinsettes or getting them to actually eat snails is critical. They can be very picky. You will need patience, and a sort of "backup plan" if food option A or B don't work out. In another section we were talking about using cull shrimp as a food option, especially shrimplets, Given your setup, that may be something to try too. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chick-In-Of-TheSea Posted July 22, 2023 Share Posted July 22, 2023 (edited) On 7/21/2023 at 10:57 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said: I didn’t do the full med trio on them, but I did do a round of Paracleanse I would highly recommend a parasite medication for pea puffers. Another journal on here documented parasite problems/sunken belly with pea puffers. It is hard to recover them once the parasites have taken hold; easier to prevent. Edited July 22, 2023 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odd Duck Posted July 22, 2023 Share Posted July 22, 2023 Oh, murder beans. They can be so interesting and so frustrating. You will need to be ready to develop live food cultures at least 2 months before you get the beans. They will need the snails but don’t do that well on only snails. You’ll want to have at least 2 other live foods on hand at all times. Daphnia/Ceriodaphnia are good ones, whiteworms and Grindal worms are good, blackworms are good, too. Baby brine shrimp, live adult brines, too, mosquito larvae, scuds, . . . . You get the idea. I’ve tried small groups, larger groups, and had a huge, solitary, asocial male for quite a while until he sneak yeeted himself out during a water change one day. Rather than tell the stories all over again, I would encourage you to read at least the first page of the thread linked in my sig for the “6 G Buce” tank. It goes through my trials and tribulations with Bad Pea Daddy to give you some idea of the learning curve I went through with pea puffers. Also consider reading through “29 G Pea Puffers” for further info. I consider both failures, by the way, despite intensive planning, extreme diligence, having live food cultures ready, frequent large water changes, etc. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chick-In-Of-TheSea Posted July 22, 2023 Share Posted July 22, 2023 I saw them in the LFS. I was so surprised how small they are! They were following me as I moved around. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odd Duck Posted July 22, 2023 Share Posted July 22, 2023 On 7/22/2023 at 9:00 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said: I saw them in the LFS. I was so surprised how small they are! They were following me as I moved around. They are nearly always young juveniles in the store. Bad Pea Daddy is the biggest pea puffer I’ve ever seen and he was 1.5” long and a thicc boy. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadow Posted July 22, 2023 Author Share Posted July 22, 2023 Thanks so much @Odd Duck @AllFishNoBrakes @Chick-In-Of-TheSea & @nabokovfan87! Definitely a lot for me to digest. I let my white worm/banana worm cultures go as I didn't have many fry and just got too busy, but know how to produce them now properly. Also, my plan was to get the pea puffers from someone like @DansFish or Imperial Tropicals, as both know a ton about the fish and make sure they are super healthy, fat & sassy before selling. I don't mind paying more when I know the fish are super well medicated and taken care of. Dan has sent me nearly 100 fish and none have succumbed yet... even with my temps down here in the Deep South fluctuating constantly. 20 more coming on Tuesday. 🙂 So I think I will likely get great specimens, do plenty of research, ensure a proper full planted to water tank with CO2, buy more frozen bloodworms(right now I feed them to all my tanks every other week, so I have them), keep producing shrimplets and snails, then once again do plenty of research...lol. Really do appreciate all your responses to this here. I cannot tell you just how much this community has helped me. Much obliged again y'all and @Odd Duck, clicking on your links now for a read...cheers! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllFishNoBrakes Posted July 22, 2023 Share Posted July 22, 2023 I love these specific bloodworms. They’re smaller, so that works great for the Peas. I can only get them from one LFS about 45 minutes away, so I buy 3 or 4 packs at a time, and when I get down to my last pack I go to the LFS again and stock up. I use 1 cube per day and split that between like 5 tanks. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadow Posted July 22, 2023 Author Share Posted July 22, 2023 On 7/22/2023 at 1:08 PM, AllFishNoBrakes said: I love these specific bloodworms. They’re smaller, so that works great for the Peas. I can only get them from one LFS about 45 minutes away, so I buy 3 or 4 packs at a time, and when I get down to my last pack I go to the LFS again and stock up. I use 1 cube per day and split that between like 5 tanks. Unfortunately only one LFS near my home besides the usuals, Petco and Petsmart. I am not too fond of that store as they weren't very friendly and definitely seemed put off when I tried to talk "fish" with them. Also told me they'd rather buy from wholesalers or overseas than anything locally bred by hobbyists. Thought it was very counterintuitive to what a LFS-hobbyist symbiotic relationship should be. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mynameisnobody Posted July 22, 2023 Share Posted July 22, 2023 @Shadow Imperial is about an hour from my house and they are pretty amazing, but Dans is the greatest place to order fish online. You definitely could not go wrong if you order anything from him. This is the only place I’d order from for mail delivery. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadow Posted July 26, 2023 Author Share Posted July 26, 2023 On 7/22/2023 at 4:52 PM, mynameisnobody said: @Shadow Imperial is about an hour from my house and they are pretty amazing, but Dans is the greatest place to order fish online. You definitely could not go wrong if you order anything from him. This is the only place I’d order from for mail delivery. Yea I have bought from him twice before and about to be a third time next week. The way they pack and take such good care of things is pretty amazing. Imperial is such a cool looking place...I would love to go by there some time if I get that far down in Florida, but I usually only get into the panhandle since its so close by. Also @mynameisnobody, if I ever get into Cichlids of whatever variety, I am def getting from Imperial. They are prob the best around when it comes to breeding Cichlids of all kinds. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mynameisnobody Posted July 26, 2023 Share Posted July 26, 2023 @Shadow I only keep cichlids with very few other species and I agree 100%. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadow Posted July 27, 2023 Author Share Posted July 27, 2023 On 7/26/2023 at 4:17 PM, mynameisnobody said: @Shadow I only keep cichlids with very few other species and I agree 100%. Oh nice! I really need to pick your brain then, as I am now debating on instead of getting one giant tank for my big shelf in my fish room to getting two medium sized tanks and having one SA Cichlids, the other Africans. SA would dig a blackwater with nice chunkier plants that aren't rooted or stems & lots of nooks n crannies? Same kinda with the Africans but not Blackwater, also do they prefer more buffered water than acidic or the same as SA? Sandy bottoms for both as Cichlids dig a lot I hear or burrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mynameisnobody Posted July 27, 2023 Share Posted July 27, 2023 @Shadow generally speaking. What size aquariums and which fish specifically do you have in mind? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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