The Puffer Forum

I was at my buddies pet store the other day and he gave me 3 South American Puffers for free. I have them now in a 20 gallon tank by themselves at the moment. My lil sister wants one but her tank size is only 10 gallons with a bunch of guppies and platies in the tank. I told her that most puffers need alot of space due because of the sensitivity to ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. but she really wants it? Is it okay to give her one in her community tank? whats is the tank size per sap's?

Read through the pufferpedia. Go to the FW puffer. Click on the Colomesus Asellus (a.k.a. SAP)... Has a lot of good info. The puffer library is loaded as well.

I would say no, she needs a much bigger tank.

If she didn't have any other fish it could have possibly worked. Best not to risk it.

I would even buy a bigger tank IMO because they are cute fish and are fun to watch. My first fish was a SAP and I blew it. I had no clue about fish and thought this is easy..fill up a tank with water and drop in a fish. I over fed all the fish that were in there and they all died of ammonia and another fungal disease. It was really sad. so I did my homework and fixed everything. send us some pics

20g isn't large enough for 3 of them either. They really like to swim!