55gal dwarf puffer tank

[sepgundamrg]

I have an empty 55gal tank that I originally got for a dog-faced puffer, but it turns out salt water is to expensive for me right now. I have all the equipment for a freshwater tank and think it would be a neat setup if I planted it and put in around 15-20 dwarf puffers, maybe less. Would this setup work? I say 15-20 because at 3gal per puffer thats 18 puffers, I could do 5gal to the puffer and put in 11. My main question is will they be aggressive to each other? Should I start with only a few little dudes and hope they breed so they are all related? Any help with this would be great, I probly wont be able to post back for a few hours though.

[crazedpuffer]

Good thing you didn't do SW that tanks too small for a dogface long term.
I'd get a little less tahn 18, maybe 16 or 17, so you can get otos and shrimp for the puffers. It would be best to get them all at once while they are small. Otherwise your setup will be great! Do you have experience with planted tanks?

[yunachin]

Fill that tank up with plants and you will be good to go. Throw some java moss in there and they might make some babies.

[Mareva]

Yep, make sure you have plenty of plants and hide outs for them and they shouldn't be too aggressive. I'd go for about 15 little ones. That'll be a lot of fun to watch!!

[sepgundamrg]

OK this sounds like its acceptable, I will try to start the tank soon. How planted does it need to be? I'm gonna post a puic of my current fw 75 gallon tank to see if it is around the right plant density.



Also could I feed the little buggers baby apple snails?

[SpockthePuffer]

thats a good plant density, looks very fun to swim around in! And yeah you could feed them baby apple snails

[Jase]

cool tank (what's in there?). I'm sure it would be excellent for DPs

I think the apple snail may be too big, but I'm not sure. I think Chin answered that question once...

[sepgundamrg]

cool tank (what's in there?). I'm sure it would be excellent for DPs

I think the apple snail may be too big, but I'm not sure. I think Chin answered that question once...

This isn't the tank they are going in just using it as a plant density reference. On the apple snails, my snails are always spawning so I get a lot of babies.

The tank houses
6 ottos(can be moved to the 55gal they need a new home when the perch gets bigger)
1 male betta
1 spotted climbing perch(Ctenopoma acutirostre)
1 common pleco
2 stripped raphael catfish
some apple snails

Thanks for the compliment! I hope the puffer's tank can look this good when I get it done...

[Mareva]

Oh yeah! The DPs are gonna love something like this!!
As for the apple snails, if they are not too big, they'll eat them! The rule is normaly the size of the puff's eye... but DPs are so small, there's no meat in a snail the size of their eyes!!! I feed them pond and ramhorn snails about 1/4 inche big, but I'd say up to about the size of a regular blueberry they'll eat it... they'll gang up on him if need be, but they'll eat it!

[crazedpuffer]

Puffers will pick at large snails until they slowly die just so you know.

[yunachin]

Tank looks good. They will enjoy something like that definitely.

[Mareva]

I beleive he said he'd feed babies, are bay apple snails that big? Because what I observed is up to blueberry size (regular ones... not the huge blueberries!) they'll kill them quick enough! But it's true that bigger, the snail is gonna have a terrible life of being picked on all the time.

[pufferfreak]

Its goint ot be so cool to have a school of DP's.

[sepgundamrg]

Its goint ot be so cool to have a school of DP's.

Yeah I have wanted one for a really long time but wanted it to be in a 40gal hex tank, this will work better though.

Edit: If I go with 15 dp's how many ottos should I add? I have 6 in my community tank that will need a new home when my perch and catfish get larger, is this a good strong number or should I get 1-3 more?

[crazedpuffer]

6 is fine. Thats gonna be a very cool tank!