45 gallon puffer tank?

[SilasMortimer]

Nine, possibly a few more. The rule of thumb is generally one per five gallons, but dwarfpuffers.com says 3-5. Still be careful. Dwarf puffers are one of the few that you can sex, but you're likely to find them too young to do so. This is important as you want more females than males.

[didz04]

Nine, possibly a few more. The rule of thumb is generally one per five gallons, but dwarfpuffers.com says 3-5. Still be careful. Dwarf puffers are one of the few that you can sex, but you're likely to find them too young to do so. This is important as you want more females than males.

ok, do youknow how to sex them isit the females are more plumper than the males? if i do go for something like 6 dwarf puffers would it be a good if i get 2 males and 4 females or isit always 1:3 (male:female)? if it doesn't go as planned and i can only find Colomesus puffers then how many would you recommend as these fish prefer groups of atleast 3. How many could I keep and is there any way of sexes these, since they are more peaceful puffers with each other so would it matter about ratio for males and females? Are there any other puffers that people have come across where they have kept atleast 2?

[SilasMortimer]

Two males and four females should be just fine. Remember, though, that all puffers, including the little bitty ones, have a big range when it comes to personality. It's good to watch them as you add them to make sure things are going smoothly.

Size and shape can help you distinguish male dwarf puffers from females, but the most obvious signs are wrinkles behind the eyes and a black stripe on the underbelly of the males. These don't show up in juveniles, however. As they grow, the wrinkles happen first, so look for those if you don't see black stripes.

As for SAPs, I'd only get three if I were you. Like most puffers, these can't be easily sexed, so don't bother trying to tell.

As for puffers you can keep more than one of, I'd say either only worry about the two types we just mentioned or get a single puffer of appropriate size for your tank. Keeping more than one of any type of puffer other than dwarfs and SAPs takes some good experience with puffers, which are one of the most difficult types of fish to keep in the first place. I know I wouldn't experiment like that without a lot more experience than I have now.

Also, if you haven't taken a look, this site's Pufferpedia is the most awesome general puffer information tool I've come across on the Internet. They also have some great articles to read.

[J-P]

SAPs = 3

DP = 1:3 ratio male to female

Keep all puffers well spaces and lots of room to explore. The PufferPedia provides the MINIMUM requirement ... I'd give them much more than that.

[didz04]

Thanks for the info guys just hope now that I find these puffers, I can ask my lfs to get them in as usually they don't let me down but they are not to big on puffers in fw but mainly in marine section. They normally bring in the gsp and f8 puffers and keep them in fw even when bigger than 5cm which I know they need to be in brackish by then, they don't really bring in many brackish fish so I think thats why they haven't bothered with any brackish setup. They have said that they have had in dwarf puffers but lately its been the SAPs so I'm guessing that would be the option at the moment. Can a certain decoration in the tank make a difference to them in terms of water quality e.g if I add in ocean rock which makes the water more harder and alkaline, can they take this kind of water condition? I have setted up a cichlid tank full of ocean rock and still have been left with some rock that I didn't add, will it be ok for me to add it into their setup as I can make the tank more interesting for them with the rocks. Hoping to build up some rocks in middle with plenty of holes and caves in and around the pile. Maybe fin the rock decoration out at the edges on both side of the middle. It was really fun building up my ocean rock in the cichlid setup but got a bit frustrating at the same time as I didn't have a clue lol on how to set it up, but I think it has come out better than ever. I even had to look at some youtube vids to get an idea, but I feel like it is better than most vids online lol . I just tried to make sure that the rocks wasn't leaning on the glass so it didn't leave any pressure onto it and even made a space for fish to swim at the back

[lilacamy931]

One small suggestion though when it comes to puffs still a bit of a newbie. Have you thought of irrubescos? I have the similar sized tank (or just a tad bigger) and have these delightful puffs. Currently 2 males and 2 females and plan to even the females out a little more (well actually Im upgrading first ). You would need excellent filtration on the tank though and also to make sure you are getting irrubescos as this species is easily mixed from what I have found x

[didz04]

Thanks for the suggestions, I went to a fish place today and they only had figure eight puffers. I bought a lyretail cichlid for my cichlid setup, but still no luck for puffers, I'm going tomorrow to my next closest fish shop 'Viscum'. They have lots of variety for cichlids and puffers but it just depends on if they stock them in a certain week as they can go just like that.