Hello! SO many questions about DP's.

[Rossfett]

Hello!
So I've got a bit of a story, of mistakes, and now I need some help.
I started getting interested in dwarf puffers this past October. I reached out to an individual in one of my local forums to help me get set up, and I now have to to believe his experiences and his puffers are a complete anomaly. As he has been keeping puffers for 8-9 years, He swears he has no problems, which I believe, as I have seen his tanks many times and he has very friendly and non aggressive fish. I eagerly listened to his advice. He keeps them in 20 long planted tanks, about 12 per tank, breeds them and sells locally. I bought one puffer from him and put it in a 7 gallon. Unfortunately that wasn't enough for either of us. I also had a planted 20 gallon long, I rearranged my tank, choosing a similar layout as his and bought 11 more.
Unfortunately, I now only have 4 left, as one by one they disappeared over the past 3 months. Some would get stuck in my circulation pump, (now removed), or were wasting away, even though they were feeding normally. I rarely saw infighting, so I believe as they were all juvies, I got a sick batch. In the tank is also 1 Dario dario and 6 oto's.

If I could please ask some questions from your collective experience, as the internet can be a very conflicting source of information.

Question #1:
I have 1 male and 2 females, (I think) and one that looks and behaves a little different from the rest, the original puffer. Is it possible it could be a Carinotetraodon imitator? Is their behavior different? Is that why he may have been able to keep so many together? I'll try to take better pictures.

Question #2:
I'm feeding them twice a day live daphnia and twice a week either pond snails or ramshorn. Is this enough? I have been completely unsuccessful feeding them anything that isn't alive.

Question #3
All 4 hover in my myrio clump, watching the world, hovering in a group. During feeding time, only the suspected Carinotetraodon imitator and the male come out to swim around, inspect everything and feed. The two females remain in the clump and wait for food to come to them. Are they unhappy or stressed? I've haven't lost any in over a month now, and they do form a loose shoal when the light is off during the day.

Question #4
When my tank fills in more, is it possible to add 2-3 more?

Thank you in advance for any advice or help!

[bertie 83]

Welcome to the forum. A 20g tank is enough room for 4-5 IMO. From what I have personally seen imitators tend to have a blue stripe up their side but behaviour is the same as the common dp, they just seem to get a little larger. Try soaking thawed frozen food with garlic, puffers love it

[hadla]

Stop feeding daphnia and get some frozen bloodworms at petsmart/co! Also smash the snails against the tank wall and let them fall in dps don't crunch down on them unless they're tiny baby snails. I'd love to give that guy you got them from a few choice words lol wish mine would breed