The Puffer Forum

As I get more into this website, I don't want to ask questions that have already been answered; but I'm not sure if trimming a dwarf puffer's teeth has been addressed.

If so, please show me the link, if not, will this be something I should become aqquainted with before buying my 3 little puffers? I want to have 3 puffers in the 15 tall after Ottos and shrimp are established and have contributed to the ammonia load. I plan on bringing one of my 10 gallons up here to set up the snail "death tank" (teehee) breeding grounds. As I do this, I'm reading, reading, reading. What species should I be looking for that has the least teeth trimming possibilities, and how does one do this to a tiny little puffer?

I plan on feeding snails 4 to 5 times a week along with bloodworms and krill. The snails will be fed vitamins probably before going headlong into the tank. Hopefully, I can keep the puffer's teeth ground down; but if it comes to me having to trim them, I'd sure love a tutorial on trimming tiny teeth.

Thanks.

DP's generally don't suffer from overgrown teeth like many puffers. In fact, I've never known of anyone having to trim them. A note of caution: if you have the ottos and shrimp in the tank first to add to the ammonia load, know that the tank will be cycled for them alone, not for the addition of puffers. I wouldn't dare cycle a tank with Otto's either, they can be quite sensitive. I'd suggest Bio Spira.

Going by my own expirences as well as those here and in the dwarfpuffers.com site's, you'll have a far better chance of starving a DP to death than you will ever even SEE its teeth.

OK. I'm writing all this down. But, I do have another question. As the tank is completely live planted with a ton of anacharis (it's so pretty, all zigzagged for much hiding room), would plant "goop" be decent waste to add to a cycle or not? I have some plant decay in it.

I am wondering, since I'm not hurrying with the tank, are you saying that when the puffers are added, the load will outrun the good bacteria available to handle the fish? Please be patient with me. I've had tanks for years, and they've been nice. But I've just gone with the guidelines of lots of water changes, peat for the amazon tank, only add a few fish at a time, and check the ph weekly. The rest of this really is new to me in a sense.

I'm a chemical newbie.

When I set a new planted tank, my base layer is a dusting of peat (literally, just a dusting) on the bare glass, topped with a mix of mulm (aka filter and plant goop) and either Flourite fines or laterite. Then that gunderfunk (less than 1/2, more like 1/4") is covered with either plain natural gravel or Flourite to the desired depth. But, my plants are all strong rooted plants (rosettes, tubers or rhizomes, bulbs) and are strongly rooted. The base layer is there solely for quicker and easier start-up, after six months to a year its benefits are pretty largely done. Anacharis barely roots and is a a water column feeder. There is not much point to me in setting for strongly rooted plants if they are not to be used. After multiple months the substrate will have developed its own mulm, so if you later wanted to change the planting scheme, the substrate would already be mature.