The Puffer Forum

hi guys ,
I am buying an arcadia arc 35ltr tank and heater next week . I was wondering how many i could keep in the tank? how long i will need to leave the tank to cycle? What else will i need in the tank ie plants , decor.
I have always liked the look of these guys when i have seen them in the shop

anyone ?

In that size tank, which is about 10 gallons if I'm doing the math correctly, you could have a trio of dwarf puffers.. try to get one male and two females.

As far as cycling the tank, you definately want to get it cycled before you add the fish, puffers are very sensitive to bad water conditions and ammonia. So read this article to give you an idea: library/water-filtration/emergencycycle/

There's plenty of info in our Library and the Pufferpedia, both found under the "Learn" tab up top, so you can find out more details there as well.

matt1983 wrote:hi guys ,
I am buying an arcadia arc 35ltr tank and heater next week . I was wondering how many i could keep in the tank? how long i will need to leave the tank to cycle? What else will i need in the tank ie plants , decor.
I have always liked the look of these guys when i have seen them in the shop

Hey Matt1983

Here's a link to the PufferPedia
In the PufferPedia you can find out what sorts of Puffers there are and what minimum tank sizes and behaviour trates they have. I've just had a look at Dwarf Puffers for you and the minimum Tank Size for 1 is 5 US gallons (20 liters), so your 35 litre tank (9.25US Gallons) can hold 2 Dwarf Puffers. It also says that you should keep 2 females to 1 male. The males have black stripes on them and a yellow belly and the females have spots on them. You might get away with having 2 female and 1 male in that tank, but I'd ask someone else on here who has better knowledge of the DP's than I have (see link below)
ug.php/v/PufferPedia/Freshwater/C_Travancoricus/

Also below I've given you some links to some Puffer Library Articals, they'll answer the questions you've asked above (check out the Puffer Library's other Articals as there's loads of intresting reads in there)

sexing dp's
library/puffers-in-focus/sexing-carinot ... rf-puffer/

feeding your puffer
library/feeding/feeding-your-puffers/

If you want to cycle your tank quickly
library/water-filtration/emergencycycle/

fishless cycle
library/water-filtration/fishless-cycling/

Hope that's helped you out

Oh Myaj has just got there before me

i would add plants and some rocks or caves so they can hide.....i have 4 dwarfs in a 20 gallon tall tank.....i have plants and seashells, and rocks and they love to hide in all of them....

+1 on the makeing sure the tank is cycled before you add the little ones....

Generally we say 3-5 gallons per dwarf puffer.. I'm surprised the Pedia says a minimum of 5 gallons per.

Lots of plants are really good for these guys, they like to explore more than most of the other species.

they prefer broken lines of sight for sure.

As far as plants are concerned, this site http://dwarfpuffers.com/ has a list of biotope plants. It's not necessary to get these exact kinds; this is just to give you ideas. You have to click on the
"Biotope" link at the top.

I belong to that site =).
Like Myaj said 3 can do fine.
Tons of plants and hidding spots.
They eat blood worms, Black worms and snails
No flaked food

Just get one dwarf. Sure you can fit three. But one will fill it up just a nicely and be more sociable, from my experience. Also gives you room to add otos or a clown pleco or kuhli loaches without overstocking.

I disagree.. I've never found dwarf puffers to be sociable fish (to humans). To me, the best part about them is watching them interact and hunt in a group.

Three of them is a good fit for a tank that size, easily.

Myaj wrote:I disagree.. I've never found dwarf puffers to be sociable fish (to humans). To me, the best part about them is watching them interact and hunt in a group.

Three of them is a good fit for a tank that size, easily.

Mine are pretty sociable with me. really cute that they come charging up to the glass whenever I come into the room. Just like my GSP. Then they hover at the front of the tank all begging for food with those little eyes of theirs...

Our Dwarfs are very sociable with us. Always up front checking us out when we come near. We have 4 (1Male 3 Females) in a 10 gal. tank. They share the tank with 2 Corydoras. We have had them for about 3 years now and they have never shown any agression towards eachother.

They sure are cute! Good luck with them!

Al

Well I guess mine have never liked me then! LOL That or they had too many live critters to hunt in their tank to bother with me.

my trio is very sociable to me. they com zooming up to the glass when ever i come over to check them out. they do fight a little with each other but only at feeding time over who gets the fattest blood worms. other than that they're fine. i have at least 2 females for sure (i'm thinking the third is a boy becuase he's much darker than the others and you can't see his spots very well, but his belly looks the same as the others and he doesn't have the eye wrinkles yet so i'm not sure) and they interact with me as much as each other. they share a 10 gallon with three ottos (started as one but was told that they do better in groups) and a baby F8 (his tank is almost cycled and will be moved over there in a day or two). never had any problems with water quality (do weekly 30% water changes) other than my pH is only about 6.2 or so and not sure why. anyway i would say definitely get a trio of dwarfs. they're so cute and so much fun.