The Puffer Forum

Thanks for the great tips!

I have a question regarding Peewee's home. I've been feeling for awhile that he should have more room to explore, and perhaps have a buddy. In my first post I said he was in a 5 gallon all by himself, well then I realized it's actually about 3-3.5 gallons. Even though he is just an inch, has room to swim around with a cave and interesting rocks and some plants, and nitrates are always kept around 5ppm, I want him to have a more complex environment.
This brings up an issue though. There is no possible way to fit a larger tank in the nook on my desk, no other place to put another tank, so the only other option would be to swap some fish around and put him in the 10 gallon freshwater I have running.
Inhabitants of 10 gallon: 2 female guppies, 3 small female platties, a black skirt tetra, an oto cat, and a kuhli loach (this was my first aquarium getting into the hobby over a year and a half ago, and I didn't know proper stocking, and several didn't make it.) My question is, do you think some of those fish (such as the guppies and platties) would be fine in the 3 gallon, and the kuhli loach, oto cat, and black skirt tetra in the 10 gallon with Peewee? I know there is a possibility of fin nipping, but I have heard people keep otos with DPs, and the kuhli loach likes to hide most of the day and is very fast, and the black skirt I think can hold it's own, and I would not cram him into the 3 gallon. What do you think? I'm also considering re-homing the guppies and platties. I am attached to the Black skirt, kuhli loach and oto cat, as they are the few that survived from the very beginning, through a couple of rough patches.



Here are a couple photos of Peewee's tank:

The Otto will most likely be fine with him but other then that I have I doubt the rest of them will stay alive with PeeWee. They are little fish with VERY big attitudes!

Yes.. he is a picky eater though!

I'm just curious what makes ottos more compatible with them? The otto is like a sitting duck.

I have 3 black kuhlis in with my 2 DPs right now. They've been in there for over a week and the DPs could care less. I also have a new arrival juvenile DP in my QT and just added 2 new kuhlis to that tank. Once those three are out of QT everbody will be getting their own 29g.

I'm guessing that DPs don't bother otos because they free swim very little and I also wonder if otos remind them of a fish from their natural habitat. I've kept otos with my DPs but for some reason they stopped eating and started slowly dying in that tank. Once everyone gets moved to the 29g I will be adding some otos and I'm going to try a large shoal in hopes they'll do better.

Black skirts are tough but I wouldn't put it and the DP together becasue they may hurt one another. Also, the skirt should really be kept in a shoal. As a singleton he is going to be very nervous and may even nip at your DP. Not to mention he may make it difficult to feed the DP.

Good luck.

That's a good point; I can see there potentially being issues over food. The black skirt isn't aggressive toward any of the other fish, but he is confident and quick to eat, whereas Peewee is a little shy (though he is starting to be more personable) and tends to be slow at getting his food.

I would definitely like to add more ottos, but I also don't want to overstock, especially because there isn't a lot of algae in the 10 gallon; and he doesn't really go for algae wafers or vegetables. My Kuhli loach might appreciate more of her kind, too..

What to do, what to do..