The Puffer Forum

Hi all,
This is my first post, just wondering if I could get some help at all. First off for the requirements:
1) Don't know pH/Ammonia etc. I treat it with two thing's when I change the water, which I change every week/two weeks:
Super Bicom 78 & 21 http://www.bicom.co.jp/aquarium/superbicom_set.html in the instructed portions and "Karukinugi":

to remove chlorine.

2) 16L, 3 Dwarf Puffers & 2 Cardinal Tetras

3) Feed once a day, originally bloodworm and after that changed to brine shrimp

4) No changes to tank in last week or so

5) Have the aquarium 4 months, I treat the water with the above products for 4 days before adding fish when I first began.

Issue: It's no big problem, I'm just a little concerned; one of the puffers is thin and only nibbles at the food, where the other two shovel it down. He takes a big lump, nibbles a bit off, and lets the rest go. One of them is quite a bit bigger than the other two, and the other two are roughly the same size except one never gets fat even after eating. Should I be concerned?

Here are some pictures to help:
Taro, biggest:


Jiro, same size as next but not so thin:


Saburo, the problem child, he gets very anxious around the camera so I didn't bother him too long to take the picture, so not great:


Here's a small clip of the biggest and the thin one (the middle one was off somewhere else)
http://rapidshare.com/files/310624297/p ... p.mov.html

As you can see, he's quite nervous, he's been like that for the last few weeks. Maybe I just didn't notice before

Anything to be concerned about?

Welcome. Nice photos. That helps.

You really need to know and test your tank's water parameters. I feel it's common for a multiple puffer tank for one puff not to get the same amount of food at feeding. Try to use a net to keep the others away while you feed him enough to make his belly look full for a while to see if that helps.

The cardinals really need to be in a different tank as the DP's will eventually tear them up.

Let us know if you see any improvement.

What size tank are they in?

Have you seen him poop and have you treated them for IP's?

It's a 16L tank, I haven't seen him poop yet but then again, it's probably more to do with me not noticing. What's IP's?

I bought a second food trough/plastic net and put it on the other side of the tank, then put food in both so he would have a chance to eat while the others were eating from the other side, he'll dash towards the food, but just won't eat a lot. Would it be because he's not interested in brine shrimp?

I wasn't sure about the cardinals when I started the tank, I originally had 4 cardinals and within the first 2 or 3 days one was eaten outright and another was nipped until all it's fins were gone. It was disappointing. I wasn't sure what to do because I don't really have the time or space for another tank so figured if they get eaten the at least the puffers have had a meal. I rearranged the plant life to see if it helped. It's probably co-incidence but since then the puffers have never touched the last two cardinals, they've been together a few months and I've seen more nips on other puffers fins than I have on the cardinals. A bit unrelated to the topic but just thought I'd explain

My dwarf puffers usually take bloodworms and blackworms before other foods,they are pretty picky sometimes (mine prefer live black worms and will barely eat anything else since they have had them)

Puffers are very territorial. They don't get along with many tankmates. I'm not surprised about the cardinals.

Is that a 16 long or a 16 liter? If it's a 16-liter tank, it's far too small. Not only will they continue to nip each other, but they also will probably die from the small space...

LilGreenPuffer wrote:Is that a 16 long or a 16 liter? If it's a 16-liter tank, it's far too small. Not only will they continue to nip each other, but they also will probably die from the small space...

It's 16 litres. They tend to get on fine most of the time, they sleep in different corners and don't tend to shove at each other except when they're vying for attention. Despite what I said about nipping they don't nip much at all, nothing I've found to be concerned about at least.

I'll try going back to bloodworm and make sure the littlest is separated to eat, thanks for the help everyone.

They need at least three gallons each, plus more for tankmates. I think that (roughly - I'm not very good with the metric system!) 40 liters is a good minimum for your current inhabitants. If you don't get them a bigger tank, they'll be stunted and won't live as long.

Rupan wrote:It's a 16L tank, I haven't seen him poop yet but then again, it's probably more to do with me not noticing. What's IP's?

IP's is internal parasite's. Very common in wild caught puffers. I would try to feed him a good variety of food. If that doesn't help he may have ip's. Check out the information in the library here:

library/category/feeding/

library/category/hospital/

You could always give the cardinals back to the fish store. You will need to upgrade the size of your tank asap.