The Puffer Forum

Hey everybody
I was thinking....
My community tank nice but no puffer tank. So my favourite puffer is the fang's but it is almost impossible to get one here and offcourse no tankmates. The SAP's looks also very nice, so this weekend I've started to read up about dentistry, because it freaks me out a bit to do that with a little fish.
So I want to make a 45 gallon tank into SAP heaven. How many will fit in there. There will be some barbs with them. I was thinking of 3 of them? Will this be a nice number. I've read they like to be kept in groups, so maybe it's possible to keep 4 or 5?
Planning on heavily planted with wood and stones.
Advice please......

i would like to know about them aswell, im thinking if im going to go for dwarf puffers or for saps, anyway i dont know if this helps but i went to an aquarium shop in apeldoorn (flip kluin) and they said i could have as many as 5 or 6 saps in my tank.. i am rather hesitatant to trust someone at an aquarium shop but mayby he could be right..
you might wanna try to go to your aquarium shop or vet and ask if they can cut there teeth.

Quote:
"Minimum Tank Size: 15 US Gallons (55 liters)"
Ref: http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/ug. ... C_Asellus/

Feed snails or other shell fish to keep the teeth trimmed. SAP's are soo cute .

Well, although you can keep a lot of puffers in a larger tank, would you really want to? Now that I have puffers, I see how much personality they have. It's a lot nicer to have one or two that you'll really love, instead of having 5 or 6 and losing that little relationship with them. I'd stick with 1 or 2 and add in other fish if you'd like more. I have no idea if you can keep Barbs with SAPs, but if you purchase Barbs, you should pick up at least 6 of them (in a school). Barbs are highly aggressive fish, and are best kept in schools of at least six. Also, is it a 45 gallon long tank (ie. about 4 feet long)? If so, then you'll do well with 6+ Barbs (assuming you can keep them with SAPs, which I don't actually know).

If you end up getting some barbs, you can keep Tiger Barbs, Green Barbs, and Albino Barbs in the same tank, because they are actually just colour morphs of the Tiger Barb, and they will stay in a school despite their different colours. Just make sure they're all about the same size, otherwise they might not school together.

SAP's are shoaling fish and do betterin groups, a single SAP can be a skittish nightmare constantly pacing. 15g for the 1st SAP and 10g for each additional SAP. You could go for a group of 3-4 in a 45 gallon tank and as long as you haven't got any stupid tankmates that dont get out the way, anything long finned or a bit boisterous or slow moving it can work with tankmates.

This topic has been covered before if you do a forum search you should find some info.

Wow, really? I apologize for my misinformation. I didn't realize that SAPs liked to shoal! In that case, ignore my SAP advice, haha.

I bought a mislabled speck of a SAP from my LFS. It was in a tank W/GSPs & F8s & he had no tail, just a stump. Only place I could put him into was my heavily planted discus tank. He's the happiest lil fella in there! He really loves the plants, I've never seen hin pacing the glass & he eats flakes with the discus! They have to be 20x his size. His tail has grown back perfectly. I love the lil feller!

Thanks for the advice.
So I will look for 3 or 4, probably I will take 3 than. Because of the bioload of the other fish in the tank I think that will be the best number. By the way the tank has a lengt of 100 cm, sorry don't know how many inches or feet that is
The shop has 5 of them now, it always break my heart when I just can't bring all of them home.

Every time i got to a lfs i want to take every puff home!!!

Yeeh yesterday i brought home three little puffer home. They're so cute. But very thin and small only about 1,5 cm.
But with some tlc and good varity of foods they will be fine.
In the LFS the had also two Mbu's, so sad. Only about 10cm very thin and stuck in a 30cm tank. I really hope some pufferlovers will find them
some pictures. The quality isn't so good. I've just have a new camera so I've got to get used to it.

Aww cute fish! Good luck with them!

Those are cute little puffers. Good Luck!!

Cute little guys! Watch their teeth, you can already see them in the photos a bit.

Those tankmates should be okay.. tiger barbs I'd be worried about, SAP's are pretty timid and won't defend themselves and I would think tiger barbs would terrorize them, but those should be fine. Just watch for any bullying.

Ok a little update....
The puffers are doing very well. Only they are a bit difficult with feeding. They only accept bloodworms, white and black musqito larve. So still trying to get them to like, shrimps and mussle ect.
A little movie of the sap's

What a nice video. Cute puffers!!!