The Puffer Forum

I went to my LFS today, and I started asking about dwarf puffers. They told me that they could order them for me... but that dwarf puffers are not freshwater, they're brackish. All the information on this site and people talking on this site seems to say that they prefer a freshwater environment. It sounds like if I order one of the DP's through this store, they're going to be acclimated to brackish water. Is it even common to keep one of these in salted water? My local Petco/Petsmarts never seem to carry any DP's and I don't know what to do about getting one.

Dwarf Puffers are true freshwater fish and should not be kept in brackish water at all.

That's what I said to the girl, she told me their provider sells brackish water dwarf puffers only. I'm fairly certain we were talking about the same type of fish considering she told me they were only about $2.99.

Just sounds like either a stupid supplier and/or LFS

Or

It could be misidentified fish

I would suspect a mis-identified fish or you are dealing with a store/supplier that believes ALL puffers are brackish, no matter what species.

Have her order them, but don't buy them until you get a positive ID on the species.

Also, verify with them what they consider brackish, what salinity. A lot of stores consider a cup of aquarium salt sitting in a tank "brackish water" and that's not even close to real brackish.

Alright thanks guys... I'm pretty sure you're right Myaj, about them considering all puffers brackish, because when I mentioned them the girl didn't seem to understand the concept of freshwater puffer fish.

That pet store was back in my hometown (about an hour away) and I'm at my dorm now, so I'll check the store up here, although I'm concered they may have the same supplier.

there is a difference between aquarium salt and marine salt. ask the lady what kind of salt they put in the tank...that may help.
if its aquarium salt you wont really need to lower the salinity down.

Pet store fish people keep telling me the same thing, to keep DPs in brakrish waters. I even mention this massive site to them... and all of them conclusively and strongly agree that DPs should be kept in brakrish waters. The most recent guy says that in the wild they are born in freshwater but swim to brakrish waters -which makes sense to me... who is a zoologist here that can clear this mess up for all newbie-satisfaction?

They're not migratory fish as far as I know, I think your LFS is confused, GSP and ceylon puffers seem to do the FW when young, brackish when older thing, not DPs. They have a fairly large range in Malabar India, and only a tiny portion of it is adjacent to bays and contains even mildly brackish water. Dps may tolerate light backish waters as puffer fish only recently(evolutionarily speaking) came from the ocean, but by far the most success in keeping them in captivity is using FW.

I believe dps just occasionally go into lightly brackish waters but generally stay in pure FW.
It's possible the supplier is getting them while they are in BW and then thinks they live there adult life there.

We recently picked up a puffer from someone who didn't think they were able to care for the puffer properly anymore. She told us it was a GSP that she had been keeping in a 10gal for 3 years in light brackish water. We went to check it out, and it turned out to be a dwarf puffer. When we mentioned this to her, her reaction was "there's no such thing as dwarf puffers, they're all variants of GSPs." Fortunately, the "brackish" she was keeping him in was only 1.0008.

Anyway, the point is, maybe that's what the LFS thinks as well, that all of them are variants of GSPs and so they all need brackish?

I have been keeping DPs for over 2 years VERY successfully--in FRESH water only! They thrive in fresh water

I am planning on getting my first DP fairly soon in a few months. I am planning on keeping it in a six gallon tank I heard a size like that would be fine for them as long as it was regularly cycled and cleaned. Which I am sure I can manage. If I feel I need to upgrade the tank I will just look into getting something bigger. Really looking forward to getting the fish should be a lot of fun to keep just hopefully I can set up everything well for him or her.

fishy_kawaii_chica wrote:...I am planning on keeping it in a six gallon tank I heard a size like that would be fine for them as long as it was regularly cycled and cleaned...

what does "regularly cycled" mean?

In fish keeping hobby, "cycling" a tank means establishing a permanent bacterial biological filter. A "cycled" tank means that there is sufficient bacteria to support the biological load in the tank.

spoot wrote:

fishy_kawaii_chica wrote:...I am planning on keeping it in a six gallon tank I heard a size like that would be fine for them as long as it was regularly cycled and cleaned...

what does "regularly cycled" mean?

In fish keeping hobby, "cycling" a tank means establishing a permanent bacterial biological filter. A "cycled" tank means that there is sufficient bacteria to support the biological load in the tank.

oh sorry I did not know that, I am still pretty new to keeping fish I guess I assumed that yo had to cycle a tank every time you cleaned it. Sorry about the confusion