Breeding Dwarf Puffers

Are your puffers feeling a little naughty & lil ones are the result? Post your findings here!
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Pufferpunk
Queen Admin
Posts: 32764
Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
Gender: Female
My Puffers: Filbert, the 12" T lineatus
Punkster, the 4" red T miurus
Mongo, the 4" A modestus
2 T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
Also kept:
lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles
Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
Location: Chicago
Contact:

Re: Breeding Dwarf Puffers

Post by Pufferpunk »

Getting them to breed is 1 thing... Raising those specks of fry to adulthood is another. Can you imagine the size food needed for newly-hatched DPs?
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
eustoma
Puffer Fry
Posts: 19
Joined: Mon May 13, 2019 10:40 am
Location (country): Guam

Re: Breeding Dwarf Puffers

Post by eustoma »

i'd like to breed as well but I am wondering how big of a tank I would need and how many puffers I would need as well. I read that having more than one female for one male is ideal so the female does not get tired out, but how true would this be if say I had one male and one female in a 15 or 20 gallon tank? Would adding another female still be advisable? Do the females need to be in a group of a specific number like other fish?

I only have a single female at the moment in a 6 gallon tank but I feel a more heavily planted larger tank would be better for it. It is doing great in its tank but it does seem bored a lot... which isn't exactly helped by me having killed almost all the bacopa in the tank recently while trying to get rid of the algae on it. I am slowly going to be ordering more plants so that I don't break the bank but also so I can kind of ensure the ones I do have thrive.
Elbaid
Puffer Fry
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu Nov 05, 2020 9:27 am
Location (country): France

Re: Breeding Dwarf Puffers

Post by Elbaid »

Hello,

I've had relative success with DP breeding.

Setup was heavily planted walstad+sponge filter tank, around 70l.
Water parameters on the harder side (ph closer to 8 than 7, higher hardness and alkalinity than the norm, very calcium loaded water here). Softened a little with the regular catapa leaf.
No gravel vac. No algae removal.
Temperature kept around 26 celsius with no regard for stability. Overall the temp varied from 24C to 29C.
Water changes 30% every 2 to 3 weeks with treated tap water.

Breeding occurred pretty fast with a single couple of big adult DPs. Very frequent breeding behavior. Always at the exact same time of the day (an hour or two before the sun goes down).
Typical already described breeding behavior, the chase, the butt bites...
I have never seen the eggs. I knew the two clumps of moss (Christmas and Java) laced with algae the female would lay on, but never got to see (and save) eggs.

This tank also contained some pygmy cories and neocardinas.

I thought it was a failure, no eggs to be seen, no fry. Didn't know who was eating the eggs but someone was.

After some time, the female started to display stress signs and a slight mouth fuzzy patch. The male chase was daily and some days were a little too much. I decided to remove them and split them into two tanks for her to get some rest and heal and for the dude to cool down a little.

A few weeks later the baby puffer popped up in a corner of the tank. I thought it was a baby pygmy cory as it would have been logical but after a second look, it was a tiny very very tiny dwarf puffer.

I guess it was feeding on pygmy cories eggs, I've seen it feed on ramshorn snail eggs too, it most probably ate his brothers and sisters too, as well as plenty of microfauna living on the sponge and in algae and moss. This tank was well seasoned and not at all sterile.

During the breeding I was constantly feeding live mosquito larvae of all sizes, along with anything swimming in my garden mosquito larvae culture.

Once I noticed the baby, I started to feed live baby brine 2 times a day and it started to grow pretty fast then. Later feeding on shrimplets and snails (or snail bits, he loved snail antennas).

The baby is now a happy adult, a male, that I will try to breed with a newly acquired young female.

In my bigger current community, there is daily breeding but it seems the khuli loaches I can't manage to catch snack on the eggs when the dads are asleep. I still hope to see a surprise baby at one point and extract it... Fingers crossed.

After observing the females during breeding in this setup and the current colony setup, I would say that when she picks the perfect location for laying the eggs, it is looking for microfauna. It spends an large amount of time scanning moss and algae with it's googly eyes until it seems that it sees something satisfying in it.

Another key to this half success was certainly the parents removal as the female most certainly ate eggs and babies. I don't think the male was into it. He was protecting the spawning site but only for a day or two.

Lastly, plenty of snails. They seem to LOVE patches of algae growing on top of a sea of dead empty ramshorn snails shells. Maybe because there while the snail leftovers decompose, there is plenty of micro life.

Shrimp are also a good idea since baby neocardinas are something they eat a lot when they are small. Also shrimp help your sea of dead ramshorn not to become a toxic waste underwater lake.

In my future breeding tank I plan on experimenting with the snail shells a little more. I truly think that it could be like a strange shell dweller with the empty shells providing food and/or shelter for the tiny babies.
I also have a few other ideas to try out in different setups in the future.

I hope that helps and I'm curious about the behavior of you dp colonies.
User avatar
Pufferpunk
Queen Admin
Posts: 32764
Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
Gender: Female
My Puffers: Filbert, the 12" T lineatus
Punkster, the 4" red T miurus
Mongo, the 4" A modestus
2 T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
Also kept:
lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles
Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
Location: Chicago
Contact:

Re: Breeding Dwarf Puffers

Post by Pufferpunk »

Wonderful!
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
hilux_ie
Puffer Fry
Posts: 15
Joined: Thu Jun 25, 2020 5:20 pm
Location (country): Bray, Ireland

Re: Breeding Dwarf Puffers

Post by hilux_ie »

My 6 DPs are living in a very heavily planted 20G tank at the moment (will move them to a bigger one soon).
Nitrates are at 0-5 ppm, despite no water changes - plants use up all the nitrate, like they should. No idea what other water parameters are, I top up the evaporated one with tap water.
Aside for DPs there's a single otto in the tank and (I'm assuming) a colony of MTS, thou I haven't seen any leftover shells yet.
Food source is almost exclusively frozen bloodworms, with a few occasional ramshorns every couple of weeks.

And yet the three little buggers have hatched, survived and are now roaming the tank, looking for their corner of the world. :) Either a beginner's luck, or a proof that sometimes it's just best to let the nature run its course. ;)
PS. A baby puffer trying to eat a bloodworm was the most entertaining thing I'd seen in this tank so far.
User avatar
Pufferpunk
Queen Admin
Posts: 32764
Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 11:06 am
Gender: Female
My Puffers: Filbert, the 12" T lineatus
Punkster, the 4" red T miurus
Mongo, the 4" A modestus
2 T biocellatus
C valentini
C coranata
C papuan
Also kept:
lorteti
DPs
suvattii
burrfish
T niphobles
Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
Location: Chicago
Contact:

Re: Breeding Dwarf Puffers

Post by Pufferpunk »

It appears many I know are having the same luck--except me!\

BTW, by topping off evaporated water with tap water, you are hardening the water a lot, by adding more minerals. Even with little to no nitrate, weekly water changes are necessary.
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...

"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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