Hi forum! newbie puffer keeper

[Stokesy]

Hi everyone,

I've been to and fro this forum and pufferpedia for last 6 months and finally at the weekend we got our first puffer, so it seemed natural I join and say a big hello and thanks for all the info I've got from you all!

We have brought 2 little red eye's, both seem to be males, I asked the guy to try and catch one of each sex but I think he wasn't exactly sure which was which! Not the most encouraging sign! All seems well so far although one is emerging as more dominant, so shy guy is hiding in the plants and decor a lot. The dominant one has feeding well but shy guy is more cautious.

So my first, of probably many questions is do you think I should swap the dominant one for a female now before I get attatched to him, or give them a while to see if they cool off and accept each other? I am ofcourse open to the fact I can only keep one puffer but half hoped choosing red eyes would mean I could try keeping a couple.

[pufferpuggirl]

Hi Stokesy,

You're close to my neck of the woods, welcome to the forum!

In regards to your redeyes ..... I'm guessing you know the difference between a male and a female? You can keep several of these puffers together. I currently have 6 in the same tank, but have had many more than that in the past. The key is make sure you have lots of plants and places to hide. Redeye puffers like hanging out in plants and they need some place to retreat to if another is being a bit aggressive. For the most part, they will find their pecking order and it's usually one male that becomes the alpha puff. Generally you should have more females than males, but right now I've got an equal amount 3 males, 3 females and another female in another tank that I can't seem to get her out of. But plants are the key!

If you have any other questions, feel free to ask, I am always happy to answer and if I can't give you an answer, I'm sure someone else can.

Welcome aboard!

[hali]

hello and welcome

[Pufferpunk]

They are best kept in pairs. I highly suggest returning one of those for a female. Can you post pics?

[Flutter]

Pairs as in an equal number of each gender?

[Pufferpunk]

Yes. I had 3 F & 1 male (lorteti). The original & largest F killed the other 2 F within 1 day. After spawning with the male 3x, she killed him too.

[Flutter]

Blegh, I wrote that wrong. You answered it anyways, is that best for all redeye species? I meant to ask if it was better to keep them in pairs instead of having more females than males. LOL, I'm not sure how a pair could ever include more than one of each... Oh boy.