The Puffer Forum

So i went to the petstore and was just looking around... and that's when it happened...

I went by a tank and i noticed the slightest movement out of the corner of my eye... so went back and looked at the tank. there were 3 dwarf puffers in a perfect triangle just sitting there staring at me. i went by the tank at least twice before i saw that movement. they were so tiny! not even 1/2 and inch i had never actually seen any in real life, i just have known about them.

so, i thought to myself, i do have a 10 gallon tank that will be free of its current occupants soon (2 firemouth cichlids that i was going to transfer over to my 29 gallon senegal bichir tank). i couldnt resist them...

i have a fever, and the only prescription is more puffers...

so i went around the store to get some more plant, the 10 gallon wasn't nearly planted enough for them yet. so i got some microsword... which was rittled with snails and then i got the litte guys along with 2 BBGs... i know they are usually brackish, but i heard that tank bred ones will thrive in freshwater, which these ones were.

i got home and rearranged the 10 gallon tank, yet again, and put them in.
Viola!

Here's some pics (you may want to click on the pics to make them bigger... remember these guys are tiny ):

great looking tank, and needless to say nice puffers...

Congrats
can't say I've heard BBGs do well in anything but BW though...

i have heard that tank bred ones will do well in freshwater, but if they start to look in any way uncomfortable in the freshwater, i have a backup plan! they will then be transfered to my figure 8 tank. i have some wild caught BBGs in there at the moment.

and you cant see them, but there are also 5 apotogen? bulbs in there that i hope will sprount up and grow out of control in the next few day... and i also plan to get some kind of carpeting plant too. any sugetions for plants on that? i think, correct me if i am wrong, that baby tears dont get taller than an inch and would work well. i plan on doing a diy co2 system in there and getting some plant fertilizers and maybe a banana plant or 2 today too... i'll post pics ofthe diy project.

wish me luck.

When I got my dp it was 1cm big,
Hope they do well.

Hope they do all right. Haha nice prescription.

so i know some about puffer tank sizes and such, but is 3 dwarf puffers, 2 ottos, 1 tiny peppered cory cat, and 2 BBGs too much for a 10 gallon tank? if so, i could put the BBGs in my brackish tank(which is what i am leaning towards anyways). but they ar a nice addition to to the tank, but one of them has been chasing an otto all around the tank for a good hour now... i feel sorry for the guy, but its fun to watch though and the other BBG already has a D shaped bite mark out of his tail, surprise surprise.

i just finished the diy co2 project, i'll put pics up as soon as it start bubbling in a new post.

yeah, that's a bit much for a 10gal. as for the carpeting plant, Dwarf baby tears would work great.

1 otto or 1 cory or 1 bbgs.

gotchya... so i just got this huge spike in nitrates today... no the tank is not new, its been set up for almost a year. i did just put some plant fertilizer in it, could that have done it? i also have ALOTof new plants in it, could the decaying parts of them do it? i just did a 50% water change 5 minutes ago, so we'll see how it looks in the morning.

They are so cute all huddled together, I have my 3 DPs in a 20 gal and they dont get close to each other and if they do they chase one another around.

I would move the BBG's.. its not the "tank bred" ones that do okay in freshwater, there's two completely different species out there and the freshwater ones are pretty rare to stumble across. Plus yeah, you're a bit overstocked, or will be.

yea, they are all three usually together swimming around, i think they are hunting in a pack for snails because when they find one, all 3 attack it at the same time with no mercy. or if they are not together, each one is in "their area" of the tank standing guard from the ghost shrimp.

so an update...
the BBGs are now happilly loafing around in my figure 8 tank(1.008 SG).
some of my plants melted, so i have rearranged it again, adding a peice of driftwood with an anubia attached, added some mondo grass, a banana plant, and i took out the tiger lilly, and i am soon going to take out the micro sword and replace it with thin leaf java fern.

so now the inhabitants of the tank are 3 DPs, i otto, and 1 ghost shrimp(which may have become food because i haven't seen it in a while). if i put a dwarf cory cat in their, if the shrimp IS gone, will it be too crowded?

i'll post some more pics this weekend when i finally get the tank setup how i like it(then i will most likely rearrange it again when i, or the puffers, get bored and then post more pics )

I think you'll be okay putting the dwarf corycat in there (they are sooo tiny), just be sure you don't overfeed and be dang rigid on your water change schedule, no slacking allowed!

i have been doing a 40% water change every 2 days now(the micro swords are melting really bad). i plan on taking out the microswords tomorrow and putting in the java fern and the fertilizer sticks. and i did get the cory, he is a busy body! the puffers don't bother him at all, they actually curiously followed him around for the first hour he was in there, didn't nip him though.

what do you feed DPs if they dont eat the frozen bloodworms i put in there? they have decimated all the snails, and just peck once at the bloodworms and just leave them alone to sink to the bottom after that. they are very picky it seems. i will try a peice of frozen shrimp tomorrow i guess.