Self Sufficient Tank With Dwarf Puffer

[ston3]

Hey,

I was thinking about getting a dwarf puffer or 2 for my 10g. I wanted to stock it with 1-2 puffers, a few snails for algae control, and some cherry red shrimp for cleanup. I know cherry red shrimp and certain species of snails reproduce very quickly. I also know that shrimp and snails are great food for puffers. The plan is to keep the shrimp and snails in there for a month or two before the puffers to get the population up. So I was wondering if the puffers would be able to regulate their eating habits and just eat the snails and shrimp whenever they needed to and not overeat. At the same time, the shrimp and snails would reproduce fast enough to maintain an adequate population for food and cleaning. Of course I would still maintain weekly water changes and I may supplement feeding with bloodworms.

Would this work?

 

[Ficious]

If I were you..you would need to have many live plants. Plants and moss would give the shrimo plenty of places to breed and hide. If anythng you would need to have them in there a few months before the puffers. All in all its a chance you have to take. The key is to have enough room for the shrimps to live without harrasment. Puffers quickley depleted my snail population

 

[Colin_T]

you will probably run out of shrimp and snails. Puffers are pretty greedy and will often eat and eat and eat until there is nothing left. If you have two 10gallon tanks and kept one for the snails and shrimp, and put the puffers in the other tank, then you could grow shrimp and snails for food. But they would be used in addition to other foods like bloodworms.

 

[iSnail]

Cherry shrimps will still breed pretty well as long as there are enough hiding places for them. As they grow larger, the DPs ignore them because they can't be bothered to catch them (in my own experience). The older shrimps are too fast. I keep 3 DP tanks and all with cherry shrimp populations. The shrimp numbers are still increasing but much more slowly. I have not managed to keep any snails breeding in a DP tank though. Hard to keep up the snail breeding even in separate containers