Help! Getting my first puffers need advice!

[Karliejune]

So I have been thinking a lot about what I wanted to do with my next tank setup, and decided I wanted to go with puffers. I have never done puffers before only freshwater angelfish.
I have a 20g tank and all the necessities for the tank except plants and decorations and of course the puffers.
My questions are is a 20g enough for 4 of them?
What type of plant and deco do I need? I've read that puffers like hiding and being territorial.
And what would be the best starter freshwater puffers to get?

I have already started to cycle the water and get it ready while I decide on those questions.
Would love for someone to help me!(:

--Karlie

[PolishPuff]

Hello

20gal will be OK for 4-5 Dwarf Puffers

Heavy planted tank is recommended, also some driftwood

Fake plants are OK since puffers like too nip on plant in search of snails.

[Terrance]

Any plants are fine with them. The type of plants you keep will depend on your lights. The plants that require higher lighting usually need C02.

If snails start breeding in your tank, then the DPs will start pecking at your plants. Other than that, you have to stay on top of algae control and plant maintenance.

[Pufferpunk]

How are you cycling the tank, exactly?

Look at the Target FW puffers. They are neat to keep & are very cute, although not very active. Here was my "Brown puffer" (T turgidus), Beetlejuice:

[Karliejune]

for the cycling i just put rocks, an air bubbler, heater and filter on. Then before i get my puffers im going to test the water.
I have some sticks, logs and wood i was using in a snake tank, and was wondering if they are okay to put into the tank?
And i have lots of plants ready to be put in. Right now i am just using a 15w aqueon regualar aquarium light. Do they need a certain type? And i have my light set on a timer to be on from 9am to 9pm, is that too much? And what temp should the water be at?

Sorry about all the questions, just very excited to do my first puffer tank

[Karliejune]

This is how my tank looks now.

[bertie 83]

You need either lots of good used filter media from a healthy tank to "instantly cycle" a tank, or use the fishless cycle method using ammonia. You cannot add a puffer to an uncycled tank. Please research tank cycling a little more.

[Flutter]

Unfortunately that won't cycle your tank at all. Doesn't matter how long you let the tank sit like that it will never be safe for the fish. Whoever told you that would cycle the tank was completely incorrect.
viewtopic.php?f=67&t=28467

Without knowing what kind of wood it is we can't tell you if it's safe or not.

Is it live plants that you have? If so they'll have different requirements. Without knowing what plants you have we can't tell you. It is very unlikely that that bulb will keep any plants alive.

That is a lot of light and you may find you'll get algae. Try to reduce it to 8-10 hours. If you get algae problems you can reduce it more.

Temperature we can't answer until we know what kind of puffer you're getting.

[Karliejune]

No for now i wont be using live plants, just fake to start off with.
I will be getting the Dwarf puffers. What type of snails should i get and what do they eat?

[Pufferpunk]

Did you read that article on how to cycle your tank? It's the #1 most inportant thing you're going to do for your puffers.

[Karliejune]

yes i read it, thank you!

Can yall tell me what type of snails to get and what dwarf puffers should eat?

[Pufferpunk]

Mine are spoiled--they will only eat live blackworms.

[Indeed]

Try bladder snails, the breed insanely fast and don't have a overly thick shell like equally prolific mylasian trumpet snails. setting up a 2.5g tank for the snails to breed (yes they need a tank/ good filtration too) is ideal. But its good to have bloodworms/krill on hand because while its ideal to have a shelled/hard food everyday its not always realistic for some people.

If your going to do fake plants get silk ones; the reason being that puffers are fragile and plastic plants are sometimes sharp. Live plants are also rather easy if you stick to easy species like java fern/moss, anubias, or hygrophilla polysperma. but only do this once your tank is cycled and relatively algae free or else the plants might get smothered in algae before they get a chance to root. a basic single tube florescent hood for the tank can usually grow these plants btw.

If you want to cycle the tank faster try a bio-supplements for aquaria, I've had good results with nightout and startsmart.

PLEASE get a FW testkit, it will save you more times then you know. just make sure your water tests with 0s across ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite, a subtly detectable nitrate and nitrite can be okay, but unless you do live plants try for 0s across the board. Then try not to add more than 25% of the total stock at a time (if we are talking 4 pea puffers for example).

as far as maintenance try 20-25% water change once weekly, however some have had better success with higher percentages.

Gravel vac the tank while doing your waterchange.

Make sure to use water conditioner when adding new water.

If possible keep the new water going into the tank at or near the temp of the tank; this is to help prevent ich.

don't feed more than they can eat in 3 min under normal circumstances, this is to help prevent unneeded pollution in the tank. However special circumstances can change this, but 99% of the time its a good rule to follow IMO.

This advice just comes from my experience, its my opinion and i do believe you can keep puffers without some of these things but ideally its best if you can go above and beyond. I say this because a happy healthy puffer is a fun puffer to watch and a puffer that's happy and healthy has never given me any anxiety =)

Your best bet though is to cruise the forum and do research. keep in mind a lot of what people say is opinion but a lot of it is based in fact as well, so cross reference and try to filter the cream from the crap. sorry that was so long, best of luck

[Pufferpunk]

All good advice here but most of us routinely do 50% weekly WC.

[Karliejune]

Awesome thanks for all the info helped a lot, I got a new tank and started the cycle. Only thing I'm missing is the puffers and plants(: I will post pics when it's finished!