Figure Eight Puffer - feeding raw, shelled, shrimp to maintain teeth?

Question

I have had trouble locating snails for my puffers to maintain their teeth. There is only 1 local fish store that I trust (I have unfortunately had disease problems with others) and they don't have snails small enough for me to purchase. Today I bought some raw shrimp that still has the shell. Will this maintain their teeth so they don't overgrow. Also - I have 2 f8's in the tank - should I feed one shrimp and take it out after a few minutes or feed them one and leave it in the tank. Thank you for your help. So far they are getting frozen bloodworms, krill and squid (they went crazy over the squid yesterday lol). Any other foods I should be giving, they don't like shrimp pellets.

Answer 1

The shell on the shrimp will definitely help.  Also, the more frozen it is, the better.  Cut a small piece of frozen shrimp (probably about a 1"x1" cube) and hold it in the tank-- they'll get used to your hand very quickly and start scraping away at the shrimp.  The more scraping they do, the better.  If you get really small shrimp (like cocktail shrimp), you can just hole the whole, unshelled shrimp in the tank until they show no more interest in it.

Answer 2

most fish shops will just give you the small pest snails that will infest tanks. i go to petco and petsmart and they gladly give them away to me