The Puffer Forum

Today I went to the LFS and got my fish! I got 5 Dwarf puffers, an Albino Bristlenose Pleco, and 2 Amano shrimp. The dwarfs are sooo cute!
The ph of the stores water was about .8 different than my tank water. I took 3 hours acclimating them, and they seem to be doing fine so far. What things should I watch for that would indicate they are stressed? One of them did seem to be hanging out right at the top of the bag when I was acclimating them, but seems to be ok in the tank. I will post pics soon.

In my experience, dwarf puffers are hardy little fish. I think they are probably the hardiest of all the puffers, at least the freshwater ones that I've had experience with. My only advice would be to make sure you have lots of plants in your tank, they like hanging out in them, and they need something to break up the openness of the tank. It helps to keep aggression down also.
They will definitely entertain you, as mine do me. I hope you have them somewhere that you can observe them easily, so you can see how funny they are!

Good luck with your little ones!

congrats on the new fish! Schismy said everything I would have said.

Enjoy!

I was nervous about checking the tank this morning, and was hoping that everyone was alive and kicking. I was happy to see that the puffers were swimming around checking out their new tank. They seem very nervous though and hang out near the back of the tank. Some of them do seem to be pacing the side of the tank in an up and down motion. I think I will add a few more plants there and hopefully it will cut back on that behavior. In your experience, how long does it take them to get used their surroundings and not be so shy?
I was also amazed to see that the amano shrimp had been hard at work last night taking care of alge that was starting to form on some of the plastic plants, it was completely gone this morning!

Might take a little while for the dwarfs to warm up to you...a little longer than the bigger puffers, the seem more skittish. But otherwise, really entertaining. Them amanos are great....I love the cherry shrimp too, just as hard working and nice accents to the tank. They ALMOST steal the show from the puffers sometimes...hehe....

Congrats!

Aw congrats on your new babies, their personalities will develop soon and they will warm to yoy

Again like everyone else congrats on your babies.I'm feeling jealous, can't wait to get mine but must be patient.enjoy.