The Puffer Forum

Its okay to have more than puffers in a tank that big as long as you have tons of decor and plants. Just make sure they are quick agile fish. Sometimes you get nice puffes. They all have diferent personalities. Otos work great with DP's to.

125blackfire wrote:well im just confused is putting dwarf puffers into a 50-75G tank a waste?

I think having a bigger tank is better for aggressive fish. If you break up the line of sight with lots of plants and decorations, they won't fight as much. Not being cramped up together will also keep them from fighting. According the the dwarf puffer site, having more females than males will keep the males from fighting as much.

Thanks to your questions, I have been reading a lot more about dwarf puffers. I always wanted some, but never did the research into getting them. Here is a really good page on dwarf puffers...

http://www.dwarfpuffers.com/rensaquarium.htm

except for south american /amazon puffers , you really shouldn't even be considering having more than one puffer per tank.

There are a few (irrubescos, suvatti) that you would be able to keep a pair, but most of the time, it's just bad news for both puffers.

You will see it in the display tanks they are kept at your LFS. Most of them will have nipped fins/bodies, etc.

Well I hate to say it. I’m reconsidering getting a puffer fish. After I happily researched these adorable creatures a 55G tank would be a waste too keep 3 dwarf puffer fish. I’m hoping too find another puffer that I can fall in love with for a second time. But rests assure I probably will get some dwarf puffers for a tank around 20G. Back to the drawing board.
Agen

well dont ever put a GSP with a T. miurus. The congo will for sure try to eat the GSP.

Well, in a 55 gallon tank you could have around oh, well, considering 3-5 gallons per puffer 11-18 dwarfs. So if you got 10 females and 5 males, that would be a great community.

SAP's are the larger ones that you'd only be able to keep a few, they are about 4-5x the size of a dwarf. And even with them, we go by the guideline of 15 gallons for the first fish, 10 for each additional.. so in a 55 you could keep 5 SAP's pretty comfortably (and probably a few otos or a bristlenose pleco for algae control).

These species don't really fight at all if you give them a really heavily planted tank (live plants). They spend nearly all their time hunting down little bugs and critters, shrimp and snails.. too busy eating to fight!