Thinking of Dwarf Puffers

[wayne_rowley]

Hi there,

I have had to give up my marine tank (costs) so now I am converting it to freshwater. For a long time I have wanted to keep puffers and I am considering setting up with Dwarf Puffers. I have a few questions about the setup.

The tank is a Juwel Lido 120 (61cm x 41cm x 58cm - 26 gallons). I am considering a setup that is heavily planted, sand substrate, with plenty of wood/rocks etc. I would plan to keep 6-8 dwarf puffers with freshwater shrimp (cherry, amano, armored) and either some otos or a small ancistrus. Does this sound about right?

I am not clear on DP water chemistry requirements. Some websites say a PH of 6-7, others say 7 minimum. My tap water is very hard with a PH of 8 - will DPs be happy in these conditions?

Thanks,
Wayne

[lilgirlkat]

I'm not a pro (by any means) on stocking tanks, but from what I've read, dps need at least 3 gallons per fish, would be happier with 5 gallons.

Mine love the heavily planted tank they're in; they hunt and play constantly.

The other thing that I've noticed is that it's more important to have a steady ph vs a specific ph.

[wayne_rowley]

So a PH of 8 would be okay for them as long as it was stable?

Is the gallons per fish based on UK or US gallons? My tank is 26UK and 31US gallons in size. I guess either way that 6 may be more appropriate than 8.

Thanks,
Wayne

[Myaj]

Most of our gallon referrals are for US gallons, so you're working with 31 then. I think you'd do fine with that mix. Just remember the 3-5 gallons each is for the puffer, no tankmates.. so you need to figure in the catfish. Personally, in a 30 US gallon tank I think you'd be just fine with 6 or so and a bristlenose (or otos). Try to get more females than males, that helps with aggression. If you go with otos instead of a bristlenose, wait to add them until the tank is WELL established, they are notorious for being delicate fish that can't survive a newer tank.

What I would suggest doing, is get the tank setup, planted and let your snails and shrimp get a good population going before adding the puffers. They'll spend most of their time hunting, so you don't want them to immediately kill and eat your initial stock of shrimp.

Don't worry about the pH, they'll do just fine in hard water. If you want to breed them, you may have to consider lowering it (but if you do, do it naturally with peat, blackwater extract or RO water, don't use chemicals). Stable, steady conditions are more important to the health of the fish than a percise pH, and its a lot healthier than trying to constantly adjust it with chemicals.

I had a similar setup in a 33xl tank and the dwarf puffers were in heaven. The only thing was, they did so much hunting on their own for live food, that they rarely accepted any food I offered them, unless it was live blackworms. So don't be too worried if they don't seem interested in dry/prepared food, they are probably much more interested in chasing down shrimp, snails and whatever other "bugs" they can find in a heavily planted tank.

[wayne_rowley]

Thanks for the great advice!