The Puffer Forum

Still waiting on my tank to cycle, its a 20 gal, I was originally going to get some sort of cichlids, but decided on dwarf puffers as I have always been fascinated with them. I have a piece of driftwood and some plants in there now, going to get some big rocks too. Anyway Probably 4 dp's, 3 otos, and maybe some ghost shrimp (and I suppose they may or may not get eaten but going to try it).

Anyway never had dp's before, I have had otos and ghost shrimp though. Does anyone have any advice? Any at all is welcome.

My lfs gave me iron and carbon (like liquid in bottles) for my plants, what do I do with this? (they actually sold it to my boyfriend so I didn't get to hear what they really said).

Iron is one of the trace elements required for a planted tank... use sparingly. Carbon is also used for planted tanks but in much larger doses. There are basically 2 choices: run pressurized CO2 or use the liquid type. The choice is yours. Depending on the plants you may not need it at all.

I'd reserve the rocks.. they can be a big question mark and may contain elements that may be harmful to the tank or beneficial. Either way boil the heck out of them first.

I have never had DP's but many others have. Apparently they are easy to care for and easy to determine the sex. Breeding is also fairly easy later on if you are interested. Others will jump in and help along with that or you can see the breeding section of the forum. I believe the optimum ratio is 1 male : 3 female.

I'd start looking at snails for helping their diet along and having a planted tank is certainly beneficial

Welcome to the forum!!!!

First of all


Dwarf puffers were my very first foray into the world of puffers, and they were so cool that I started researching other puffers. They are hardy little puffers, very easy to care for, not needing some of the care that other puffers might require.

One thing I can't stress enough is to get LOTS of plants and/or decorations. In order for your group to be happy, you need to keep the tank "busy". You want broken lines of sight throughout the tank. I have a personal belief that DP's enjoy being in small groups -- as long as the tank is set up correctly with lots of places to hide and swim in and around. They tend to develop a pecking order within the group and as I said, if the tank is set up correctly, then there should be no problems. At least I don't have any problems with my group.

My DP's are not very interested in snails, but you never know. I still throw some in every once in a while, just in case. I would suggest getting a liquid vitamin so you can soak their food in it. My DP's seem most interested in frozen bloodworm, eating different foods infrequently but mostly just wanting the frozen bloodworm.

I think they are a very rewarding little fish to own. Much personality in a small package.

Hi Tabbykat9698,

Like you I'm new to DP and cycling a 10 Gallon tank atm the guys here have given me lots of invaluable advice, from starting a snail/shrimp tank to plants and cycling etc, I can't really give you much advice as I'm too new but welcome and good luck!

Well they locked my other thread since I asked more in detail about the iron and carbon.... Even though in this thread I barely asked. Anyway the brand is Seachem Flourish Iron Supplement for the planted aquarium and Flourish Excel Organic Carbon for the planted aquarium. That was for whoever asked. I hope you actually read this one.

When you do multiple postings on a single subject, it is very confusing for people answering in different threads to know what has & hasn't been answered. Please be patient.

I was trying to take a more detailed approach on asking the question about iron and carbon by making a separate thread about it. I DID accidentally post my detailed question twice. But they both got locked. I just got scared that no one would read AND answer the questions I posted in this particular thread and we all know that happens (you may answer one question but ignore others, I do it too, you answer what pops out at you). And I DO use the search feature, I've been on many different forums for many years (including fish ones several years ago) and I have never seen anyone lock a thread in this manner (where I barely asked a question about something at the end of this thread and then chose to make a separate thread with a more detailed version so people will pay attention to that and not the other questions asked in this thread). I am really not feeling welcome.

You are welcome to add to the thread you started in the 1st place, with more detail. I kept this one open, since it had the most responses. I still stand by my statement that it gets very confusing to responders to your queries, when you post the same question in multiple threads.

Tabbykat9698 wrote:Well they locked my other thread since I asked more in detail about the iron and carbon.... Even though in this thread I barely asked. Anyway the brand is Seachem Flourish Iron Supplement for the planted aquarium and Flourish Excel Organic Carbon for the planted aquarium. That was for whoever asked. I hope you actually read this one.

Both are good products As I mentioned earlier (even in a locked thread you can still read but not reply) unless you are going into medium light or more difficult plants you probably won't need that. The green water is most likely from algae that came in with the plants... had the right conditions to turn the water that color.

I mentioned the blackout (24-48 hours).. you can give that a try.. or you can go the other way and OD on Excel (5~8x the recommended dose) and that will also clear it up quick but a little expensive and not without some risk as there are fish in there.

On a side note.. this is one of the few forums that allows multiple questions per thread. Other forums like one question per thread to simplify searches. PP and Myaj are a little more flexible

My question is how do I use the Iron and Carbon, How much, How often, etc?

They don't come with dosing instructions? What brand are they?

The Iron should be used either weekly or monthly IMO and the carbon can be used daily or every second day. Yes, read the bottles for dosing instructions and use 1/2 that for a lightly planted tank As you experience more growth you can up the volume. BUT, I am still worried about that green water issue.. did you get that under control?

The brand and all is in this thread a few posts back. It has instructions but I was scared since the tank was still cycling and I am waiting on puffers. The water has gotten a bit better (havent done anything to it though). Like i've said I have never used this so I dunno. They told my bf at the lfs to be careful but thats all he knew to tell me lol.

IMO, you should skip using something even the LFS told you to "be careful" using. NIMFT!

What plants are you trying to grow?

I have some anubias, amazon sword, and i've forgotten the others! One looks like hornwort but isnt. then there is a short low light leafy one and some type of grass. I am going to need some more plants for the dp's. The amazon sword and anubias and a thing of driftwood are the tall things in the tank, all the other plants and decor are short.