The Puffer Forum

I have 2 dwarf puffers and I have been trying to see if they are male or female. I think they might both be females. One has a white belly and the other one has a yellow belly with a white strip down its body. I read the article and they are too small to see eye wrinkles. I know males have a dark strip but mines has a white strip.

See more pictures here:
viewtopic.php?f=38&t=12055

The white belly is a female and the yellow belly with white strip is male, it would grow dark eventualy.

Is it ok that I just have the pair? I did have another one but he/she was really skinny and I he/she didn't make it. I don't really want to add anymore but I know they do well with more females then males.

Just a pair is fine.

Good, but I did find the most beautiful dwarf puffer a few days ago at the lfs. He/she has some really nice spots, they kinda look bright green. If it is a female could I add her to the tank? I don't know if females are more aggressive then males since mine are very happy and they hide in the trees and play around in the little caves. I mean if they are happy I might just wait and not get that other dwarf.

It would probablly be best not to add the other dp as it could mess up the current happiness.

I had a very busy weekend and Friday I feed them and watched the tank for a while but one of my dps looked very bad! I don't know what was wrong with her I checked all the levels and they were fine I didn't have time to do a water change. I came home saturday and she was gone, I am so upset I took her out of the tank and there was nothing wrong with her no nipped fins or anything. I am going to do a water change tonight my other one looks healthy!

I think DPs are likely to have IPs... All 3 of mine had them and they didn't look that skinny or anything. I know there's divided opinions about this, but I think it's a good idea to just treat any new puffer for IPs. I like to work in prevention!
I hope you'll be able to find another friend to your surviving puffer.

I think I am going to get the other one I saw at the lfs. I never thought to treat them for Ips since I thought they weren't live caught. I guess I will treat this next one for ips. Thank you I never thought about it!

I know it's said they are breeded, but either there are still some wild caught, or they are catching IPs from other fish. I know IP treatments have ended in growth spurs for all of my puffers. I am right now treating them again (last treatment was 5 months ago) because 2 haven't grown since the last treatment while the third one got twice as big. This time I am using Jungle Parasite Clear tank buddies. The DPs are tolerating it pretty well. Before I used Gel Tek parasite treatment (soak bloodworm in it) and it worked too. The jungle tabs are useful because you do not have to soak their food in it and it's usualy easily available. There's also a great article about treating IPs in the library.
If I were you I'd treat both your surviving and the new DP, just to make sure the surviving one is clear of IPs too!

I am going to treat both of them just in case. Thank you for the help!