Pea Puffers

[justin9990]

I recently rescued three pea puffers. The person bought them and wasn't willing to put in the work. Unfortunately I didn't have a cycled tank ready for them so I am cycling the tank with the fish in there. I have a 20 gallon set up for them. I do have an established 10 gallon tetra tank. I started out testing levels everyday and changing the water every three days. Ammonia showed up in the .5 range for one day and then zeroed out. The nitrites have been sitting around 3. I started doing daily water changes since the nitrite spike. I also had to change their filter because it completely clogged up. I took the filter cartridge out of the tetra tank and put it in the puffer tank filter since they are the same size. I skipped water change on that day. I do have nitrates so i know the tank is cycling, I have just been nervous doing so many water changes. Should i continue on the path I am on? I only have the three puffers right now, once the cycle is completed I am going to pick up three more. All of the puffers seem fat and happy. I have been feeding them crushed ramshorn snails(I have an infestation in my 6 gallon betta tank) and frozen blood worms. The bloodworms are a bit challenging as they are messy and the puffers will only eat them if they are moving. Anny advice for feeding would be great. I am going to order a kit and brine shrimp eggs to start farming brine shrimp for them.

[Pufferpunk]

If you use filter media from an established tank, your 20g should have enough bacteria to handle the bioload from 3 tiny puffers diluted in such a large tank. Water changes are never a bad thing.