Irrubesco - newbie questions

[Chikixie]

Hi,
I'm completely new to the world of puffers and know I have a lot to learn.
My local aquarium store are trying to get some irrubesco home for me within 2-3 weeks.
My question is how many would you guys recommend I get for my 30 gallon tank? I was thinking maybe 1 male and 2-3 females.
And is it possible to determine the sex of a juvenile irrubesco? So I don't end up with all/most males.
Can I have snails and shrimps in the tank as well or will the puffers overeat if they have access to these all the time?
Right now I have ramshorn, tower snails, shrimps, Blue Japan guppies and some catfish in the tank. Can I keep the guppies and catfish with the puffers or should I move them to my other tank? I know they are/can be aggressive but I'm asking because my sister had 3 figure eight puffers with other fish and they didn't touch them.

I also have a question about filtration... I have two Eheim aquaballs; 60 l. + 130 l. (my tank is 112 l.). Is that enough?

[Pufferpunk]

It is highly recommended to keep irrubesco species in pairs. I had a female lorteti (more aggressive of the red eye species) who was a loner for a while. Then added 2 more females & a male. She killed the 2 females overnight & then after breeding with the male 3x, killed him too.

Tank looks great! You could try 2 pairs in there, IF you can sex them. But I'd remove the fish you have in there now. The puffers would most surely kill them & are highly attracted to long fins to nip on. Snails & shrimp, you can consider as pufferfood.

[Chikixie]

Thanks for the reply. I will try two pairs... If the store can get them for me, still haven't heard from them and it's been a week!!! I think I'm slightly impatient

[AquaMike]

Welcome to the puffer addiction! These will easily be the greatest fish you have ever kept. They should love that tank you setup. I have a Borneo red-eye who used to hate everything but has calmed down the past 6 months. I believe the red-eye dwarfs are all sexually dimorphic so you can tell the difference between sexes fairly easily (females are the prettiest IMO). However, I don't know about when they are juviniles. I second PufferPunk too about removing the fish in there now. The guppies can be food if you don't mind losing them, but the catfish would be the biggest concern. You don't want the puffers to get hurt by their barbs.

IMO, I would put the shrimp and/or snails in their own smaller tank and let them breed so you have a constant supply of live food. I also think their diet tends to be the main challenge for most people. It's not so much the foods are hard to come by, it's usually puffers just being picky. Just offer them a mixed diet and they'll love you, and beg you ALL the time. BONUS!: red-eye dwarfs' teeth are similar to pea puffers so you shouldn't have to worry about them overgrowing.

I'm not too familiar with your filters but overfiltration is always recommended regardless.

[gkai]

Two pairs for 112 l may be a little bit too much. I had a pair (my male died, planning on replacing it as soon as red eye appear again in one of my 2 LFS, should be anytime soon as they are seasonal) in a 90 cm long 75 l and it was OK but I would not have added another one. IT was sometime tense with 2 already, each of them being a bully when the other one was not in shape....It's not that I fear much about bioload (you have a lot of plants, if they are well lit and healthy it's like another efficient filter in there) but more about footprint, irrubesco are the less agressive of the red eyes, at least less aggressive than the lorteti, but still they can have their bad days. there will be dominance charges and they will try to get the good spots (like the tube) for resting. If one of them is bullied by the 3 others, he/she will have trouble getting out of the way and will get bitten, possibly also not be able to feed well.

I aslo have a lot of guppies, endler variety. My red eyes sometimes get bored by them and charge, but they are much to quick to be hurt. In fact, the problem is that they steal food from my red eyes....
fry can sometimes be eaten, but that's good, they reproduce like crazy anyway.
I guess it depend on guppy variety, some have very long tails and are not fast swimmers. they can be in trouble...

I also have amano shrimps, expected to be gone but no, they too are quick and escaped a few hunting attempt. Now my irrubesco ignore them...

It's more all slow stuff that is at risk: snails (all of mine have disapeared, except trumpet one, that dig and have extremely hard shells), filtering shrimps, slow swimming fishes...