Just got pea puffers need help

I just got 6 pea puffers for my 29 gallon tank. There are in there with a bristle nose pleco. That should be ok no? I had other fish in there before and moved them to another tank so the pea puffers Can have their own space. I have an existing snail population in there but it doesn’t seem like they eat us nails yet because they are too small. When will they start eating the snails? And how long does it take for them to get fully grown? Any help is appreciated.

 

My first pea puffer nearly starved before it figured out how to eat snails. In the end I very carefully picked all the shell of a snail and put it back in the tank. This is a problem with single puffs.
As it sounds like you have a group all you need is for 1 to figure out how to eat snails and the others will learn from that.
How small are yours? I have seen some come in very small and you will have to feed them live black worms until they get bigger. If you have a worm bin for composting you can pick out the smallest red wigglers and use those.

 

I have a group if 6. I think they are juveniles. They are SUPER small. I feed them blood worms which they eat now.

 

I just bought 6 pea puffers for my 29 gallon a week ago. They are in there with my existing albino bristlenise pleco. No issues so far. I also have a bunch of snails in there. They eat frozen blood worms no problem, but it seems like they just ignore the snails. Do they not eat the snails because they fish are still too small? Or is there something I can do to get them to eat the snails? Thanks in advance.

 

what snails are they

 

Pond snails.

 

The first pea puffer I had would only eat snails floating along the surface of the water, or if I held the shell with tweezers. When the snail came out the fish would suck it up.

 

I feed them bloodworms daily. But the snails they don’t eat.

 

Give them a day or two off the bloodworm they may change their mind

 

You think that would work? I mean if they are hungry they will just start eating them and know how to eat them?

 

They should eat them if you don't over feed on anything else plus the may not start on the snails until they are a certain size

 

I saw my pea puffers eating snails!!!

 

Contratz!
Now all you have to do is keep up with the eating

 

I don't know about your pea puffers but let me say, Whoooooooooooooooooo!

 

So if I don’t clean the shells the ammonia will spike right?

 

With my pea there was a constant issue with waste as after he got full he would just keep killing for the joy of killing. This left piles of dead snails around. This is a reason that they are considered messy fish.
Cleaning out half eaten or dead snails will also keep this from happening.