The Puffer Forum

Hi,

I had recently bought 2 dwarf puffers and setup a tank. It's a bowl shape kind of tank. After 2 weeks, the 2 puffers died 1 after another. What went wrong? Can any expert help.
Is it cos of food? or water?

My tank contains a filter, pebbles, seashells. I put some salt into the water. I feed them with those dry fish food, container type.
Me and my wife really like dwarf puffer, would like to setup again. But now, would like to find out what can be wrong and how to setup and maintain before we embark again.

Thanks for your help in advance.

Just to add to the above. I also had 2 slightly bigger fishes with them before the puffers died. Will the big fish affect them also?

How many gallons was the tank? How was the tank pre-cycled? Dwarf puffers do not like salt & they don't eat flakes.

hey, thanks for reply.
The tank is quite small, think about 3 litres, that would be about 0.79 gallon.
I bought it from a fish shop and the guy told us to put a little salt into the water, and I did, a small amount. I fed them with flakes.

Before getting the puffers, I setup the tank with a little salt and on the filter and left the setup for 2 days before putting in the puffers.
So seems like the water and food is the problem? The tank?

Thanks.

3-5gallons per puffer.

So it's the tank... it's too small amount of water for them?

So should I use pure freshwater? or still add a little salt?
And the food, got to get bloodworms, snails etc instead of flakes?

So if I got 2 puffers, water can be around 8 gallon? or less or more?

About precycle of water, is my method ok? or need to do something else?
How long do I need to precycle the water?
Thanks. ;p

Pure fresh water, dps are intolerant of salt. Feed them bloodworms and snails. Flakes are bad for them. People have kept 2 dps in a 5 gallon but you might as well go for a 10 gallon so they will be happier. Also read the article on fishless cycling in the puffer library.

Hi there, sorry to hear that you were conned by the LFS staff, it makes me mad. We recommend that you hvae 5G for the first Dp and 3G for any additoins. This is the bare minimum though and not what you should aim to, the bigger the tank the more stable the conditions will be for the fish. I would aim for a 10G+ for 2 DP, with plenty of plants and places to explore. You will need to cycle the tank too, there's an article on how best to do this in our library and yes these are Freshwater Fish so no salt at all. You will need to perform regular water changes and make sure that the filter in the tank is more powerful than the capacity of the tank to healp deal with the waste that these fish produce

Good Luck and if you have any other Q's please ask away

Hi Pufferpunk, flamesofifreet and Manutuis for all your replies.. really helped me understand better what happened and how the puffers might have died. I will look into the library for cycling of water and your comments for the puffers.
Guess I will do some preparation work before getting the next puffers.

For the filter pump, which would be appropriate? E.g. for a 8 - 10G tank? how can I choose the filter pump?
Can I have 2 puffers in the same tank? Can they go along with other small fishes?

Thanks.

Only feed them food that is clean or decontaminated. I fed some snails to 3 of my dad's small green spotted puffers and 2 of them died as a result. The snails were obtained from a nearby pond when they should be bred by the owner instead. There's one hovering on the surface of the water and i think he's not gonna survive the night. The tail part has gone white and this is similar to the other 2 puffers which had died. Both had big white spots at the side of their body before they died. RIP. I killed my puffers =(.

http://www.dwarfpuffers.com !!! go there, everything and more you need to know about dps!