Not a great idea I'd say. They'll definitely take out the snails. Probably much faster than you'd expect. And likely will do so over the shrimp.

BUT (note that's a BIG but) that doesn't mean that they won't go after anything else. I've kept Amanos with them and they should be OK. I've not kept them together but smaller cherry shrimp I'd say is very risky. As probably will be some of the others. I have kept various other fish with them but that works in some cases and not others. More of a be very surprised if it works out sort of thing. Also, even in the best case pretty much no matter how many snails you have in various tanks they will be gone relatively quickly. From there feeding them with other fish in the tank can be kind of difficult.

Bottom line - not a good solution to a snail problem. Puffers are great but better kept in a tank for them. Doesn't mean that you necessarily can't keep other things with them, but the tank should be set up mainly as a puffer tank.

 

I see, i start to consider them because i heard abt their attractive behavior (never own one) so would be great plus if they could control the snails too. it means to keep them its best the tank including other inhabitants selection have to be built around/to fit them.
I guess i have to just let it be or is there any solution that will not affect the shrimp??I just hate bcs the snails too many so when they climb on the glass like a squad its too obvious [emoji23]. And they will go after algae wafer for the shrimp too so these snails always in my video. Thanks btw!🤞

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I think it depends on the puffer's personality to be honest. I keep mine with cherry shrimp and there are even a few babies knocking around in there. That said, I probably wouldn't take the risk of adding one to your current setup as I think I am one of the lucky ones who has docile puffers.

 

In my experience they will leave adult RCS alone. I currently have a 20 High with 1 Pea Puffer, 2 BB Gobies, 2 Otos, 1 Nerite Snail, 2 RCS, and 1 Dwarf Crayfish(maybe? I rarely see him), with very good results/no aggression. I feed directly feed frozen brine shrimp, hikari micropellets and occasionally hikari bloodworms. There is a small bladder snail population which I assume composes most of its diet as I rarely see it eat when I feed prepared food. My theory of why the puffer does not try to eat RCS is because of the dwarf crayfish which was the first one in the tank. I later introduced the pea puffer and when they met the puffer circled around the crayfish like it was about to strike, but the crayfish waved its claws and the puffer swam away. I could be vastly overestimating the intelligence of the puffer, but it stays clear of the cherries at all times, perhaps due to memory of the crayfish, as they are similar in size to the dwarf crayfish( the species I have “Cambarellus diminutus” is smaller than the regular orange dwarf crayfish “Cambarellus patzcuarensis” commonly seen in the hobby).

 

I have 2 puffers in a 10 gallon with ghost shrimp, never seen them attack one of the shrimp. I even dropped an ailing RCS into their tank hoping they'd eat it but they quickly inspected it and swam away.


They devour anything resembling a snail though.

 

IME, I have a pea puffer set up, 2 years old. It wipes out the snails pretty regularly. Leaves the shrimp alone. With that said, I keep a large amount of snails on hand for it.
Adding fish for the sole purpose of controlling something is not a good idea. Making another tank for just the puffer and feeding it snails, not too bad of an idea, but they will eat a lot (More than you may think). I'm sure if it runs out of snails, it'll go for the next food source in line.
Good luck

 

We recently got a pea puffer and it has been a problematic fish in my opinion. It is very picky on what it eats but is slow to eat. I would drop in a number of snails and other fish were eating them before it had a chance. I then moved it to its own tank and put in as many snails as I could get out of a tank and he ate them one after the other. I'm just about out of snails, which is what I had wanted but now I'm going to have to convince him to eat frozen shrimp.

 

Yeah, like I said above it can be tough to feed them with other fish in the tank. Much easier when they're in their own tank.

If it doesn't go for it right away, you might try using an eye dropper to help in the transition over to frozen foods. Kind of tease it in and out of the tip at first. Once they get the idea then they'll come right up to it to eat. Usually after a little while you then can stop that and they'll take it just dropped into the tank.

 

One of my puffers only eats snails, but I haven't had snails in a few months. I believe it feeds exclusively off the biofilm and maybe small crustaceans. I give the other puffer in the tank bloodworms, but the first puffer doesn't touch them

 

Hi. Many thanks for your reply. i had been following yours advice to not add pea puffer just to control the snails, might set up another pea puffet tank on my next block leave.

But yesterday one of the my LFS's staff contacted me telling they have african butterfly cichlid in stock which eat snails? Is this true?.

Fyi im not going to buy them for now as pretty sure my cherry shrimp colony will be wipe out. Just to see if you have any info on this. [emoji4]

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Agree with others. My puffers have no interest in shrimp. Very young shrimplets on the other hand certainly get picked off. I started their tank putting something like 800 rams horns in it thinking I could get the snails established and the puffers would have a constant food supply. Nope within 1-2 months every single snail was dead. They’ll kill them when they’re full just because. So having a tank to raise snails for them is certainly the best approach.tnough imo I don’t see why it’d b a problem adding them to your tank you want to get the snails under control in. Just plan on setting up a small one to raise additional snails for when they clean that one out