South Americans in a Fluval 125

[SJC123]

Hi all,
Pretty new to the world of Puffers (I've kept D.Ps before) but i want to expand to South American Puffers;

my Fluval measures 80 centimetres long, I've heard that this could be too small for a pair of SAPs.

Does anyone have any experience keeping them in a 125 litre tank?

Cheers, Sam.

[LilGreenPuffer]

I'm not so hot with the liters-to-gallons conversions, but I think that would be fine, as far as space is concerned. Keep in mind, though, that they are schooling fish, and they prefer to live in groups of at least three.

[coldmachineUK]

80cm long is only a 2.5' (foot) tank in footprint, and 125L is ~30G. Really you could do with longer. SAPs do best in an odd number, so a minimum of three, ideally, though after I lost two of my trio to clove oil poisoning (see my forum posts for info) I moved my surviving SAP to my community tank where he's adopted a trio of BBGs as his playmates. It's not so much that they school as much as they are very active and require plenty to do, watch, and copy.

You could get away with a trio in a 30G, if you really know what you're doing. If you decorate the tank to keep them sufficiently interested, plant it up sufficiently (include floating plants which work wonders), and give them plenty of current, you could see how you get on bearing in mind an upgrade may be necessary down the line if they appear overly bored or distressed.

[SJC123]

ok cool, yeah i was thinking i would probably have to upgrade at some stage anyway.

For the time being, if i were to get 3 SAPs, would i be able to buy anymore fish?

Also im assuming it should be a Male and two females?

[LilGreenPuffer]

Actually, there's no way to sex SAPs, and they don't seem to care, either.