*UPDATE* Converting to dwarf puffers!

[huntress]

UPDATE****

Thank y'all so much for all the advice the last month! My new little DPS seems to be doing very well. It now begs for food whenever it sees me. I have also caught it feeding on a few planaria that show up on the glass. The puffer has taken to eating the bright red blood worms and gets so excited to see me. I think it has gotten bigger! I finally got to get some new pictures of the puffer....here they are. I'm still not sure if it's a male or female as I think it is only a couple of months old. May need more time to to see the gender traits??


Thank y'all!

Capture.JPG

[bertie 83]

He is tiny! De worming as a precaution is good practice with puffers but he looks in good health. Feed until his belly is slightly rounded 6x per week

[bertie 83]

Welcome to the forum

[huntress]

Thank you! Howas many more weeks/months will it take to notice any gender traits?

[hadla]

Welcome Just a warning... It's almost impossible to have just one dp!

[huntress]

Welcome Just a warning... It's almost impossible to have just one dp!

I'm used to keeping just one fish due to my betta background. The lady at the lfs told me to buy two for my 5.5 gallon tank. I knew better. Shame that she said it would have been ojay.

Hahaha I don't want to take any chances plus I don't have room for a bigger tank.

Thanknow yall for the warm welcome!

[Pufftastic]

Questions:

1) How old do y'all think the puffer is (I've attached a picture, mind you I have some large hands!)?:

2) What does puffer poo look like?

6) is it normal that the tail of the puffer is bent most of the time?

Very very young. If it's a male, you might see the first signs of wrinkles around the eyes in a month or so, though. They grow fairly quickly under good care (and it sounds like you're doing everything wonderfully!).

Puffer poo looks different from most other fish poo, to me anyway. Kind of like tiny little Hershey's kisses.

The bent/curved tail is part of the settling in process. It will straighten out and he/she will fan the tail fin once he's more relaxed. After that, you'll mainly see a curved tail when he's investigating something, and kind of "helicoptering" around it.

[huntress]

Oh good to know! Thank you!

Does anyone know the correct dosage of Prazipro on a puffer's food source (blood worms, shrimp)? I would like to do some preventative treatment if possible...

By the way the auto correct on my tablet is awful. I promise I usually don't have such weird typos!

[bertie 83]

Yea in a month or two you may be able to tell the sex, but as a singleton it's not worth worrying about. You were right to get just one for that tank size. The food will only take on a little med so about a quarter of a tab in some tank water, crush up some garlic in the mix to disguise the meds too. That often helps

[huntress]

Does it really take up to 6 months for a DPS to fully mature? Could it be possible that my puffer is a female?

[Pufftastic]

With the updated pics you just added, looks like a male to me.

[seeparks]

Is de-worming necessary if the DPs don't show any symptoms? Are there any side affects to using prazipro? I just got 3 myself and I'm wondering if I should be doing this as well.

[Pufftastic]

Is de-worming necessary if the DPs don't show any symptoms? Are there any side affects to using prazipro? I just got 3 myself and I'm wondering if I should be doing this as well.

PraziPro is a relatively mild medication, and not generally harmful or prone to causing side effects. That said, it's your choice whether to de-worm or not. Some people do it routinely, with every new puffer, regardless of whether they show symptoms. Others wait and see.

Many DPs sold in the trade today are tank-bred and not procured from the wild, and therefore much less likely to have parasites. So waiting to see if symptoms appear, at least with DPs, seems safe to me.