The Puffer Forum

Hi.. My name is Gina and I live in Arizona. I have kept fish off and on since I was a kid.

However, I have never kept a puffer and I am considering it now..

Thank you for having this forum available!

Gina

What kind of puffer are you considering?

Welcome to the forum!!

If you find a little guy that interests you, you can always fact check it here before buying:
ug.php/v/PufferPedia/

Hehehe. Welcome

Once you get a puffer you'll be hooked

Welcome, GinaGV! Good for you for researching a pet before buying! I wasn't as smart as you, but fortunately for me and my puffer, this forum helped me learn what I needed to do to provide a good home.

Thank you for the kind welcome.

I have a 20 gallon tank that is currently empty. I found some really inquisitive dwarf puffers at our LPS and they caught my attention...

I'm considering setting this up for the puffer. They are young and probably hard to discover gender for sure, so even though its big, I probably would only get 1 to make sure of no aggression... I mean I already have everything a 20 gallon needs... why go out and buy something smaller when I still would have an empty tank?

Hope that makes sense... I guess another reservation I have is the providing live snails for them to eat... I read somewhere on the net that I could put in a cuttlebone, like they put in bird cages, and the puffer would chew on it instead and I could offer other food instead....

Anyway, comments? advice?

Gina

DPs tend to be harder fish to feed. They seem to be more picky than most. Can you get live blackworms? People tend to have the most success with them. When I had mine they mostly ate bloodworms, I didn't know better then. Thankfully though, they don't demand as much crunchy food as other puffers.

Here's an article on feeding puffers.
library/feeding/feeding-your-puffers/

Have you seen other puffers around you? Irrubescos or F8s (light brackish however) can also fit in a 20gal. DPs are awesome little fish though. The other option is that you could buy them and sell them if you have too many males or you could put a divider in the tank.

GinaGV wrote:Thank you for the kind welcome.

I have a 20 gallon tank that is currently empty. I found some really inquisitive dwarf puffers at our LPS and they caught my attention...

I'm considering setting this up for the puffer. They are young and probably hard to discover gender for sure, so even though its big, I probably would only get 1 to make sure of no aggression... I mean I already have everything a 20 gallon needs... why go out and buy something smaller when I still would have an empty tank?

Hope that makes sense... I guess another reservation I have is the providing live snails for them to eat... I read somewhere on the net that I could put in a cuttlebone, like they put in bird cages, and the puffer would chew on it instead and I could offer other food instead....

Anyway, comments? advice?

Gina

Welcome to the group, Gina . Btw, I think the dwarf puffers be great in the 20 gal. but try to avoid the thin skinny ones at the lfs, even if they are eating. Pick the fatter healthy looking ones. Small pond snails wont be too hard to feed time time since they live in the live plants at most lfs's.

Hi Chris,

Oh I have tons of MTS in my 55 gallon tank.. I just have a problem of watching something die because I chose it to go in there... I guess Im just over sensitive? Ok.. Im a wimp.. there.. I said it... which is why I was asking about a cuttlebone working for the puffer to gnaw on to keep the teeth down. I feed my other fish frozen worms and brine shrimp... as well as flakes, pellets, veggies... etc..

Maybe puffers aren't a good fit for me, if I can't watch live things die.... (please don't make fun of me lol )

Gina

GinaGV wrote:Maybe puffers aren't a good fit for me, if I can't watch live things die.... (please don't make fun of me lol)

I understand! I just told someone the other day that I have to hum "The Circle of Life" to myself when I feed snails to my puff.

I'm a wimp too. You get more used to it over time. All of our tanks are busy and we put shrimp in overnight so they have a fair chance at finding hiding places. I crush snails. It seems really icky at first but I use pliers and give one quick strong crush. They're dead instantly so there's no suffering.

I understand! I just told someone the other day that I have to hum "The Circle of Life" to myself when I feed snails to my puff.

This is so awesome! Lol

Gina, I been feeding my Fahaka puffer live red claw crabs that you buy from the lfs or such and had to save one for the kids because they did not want to see the live crab being eaten by the puffer like its a potato chip..lol. But they got a kick out of it when they saw it done for the very 1st time though. So for now on, I will just feed while the kids are in school but still keep that other one for them...lol. Btw, before I could buy them from the petshop, I had to sign a form for them. I was like do I have to? They told me it was their pet policy. Thinking to myself, glad they don't know what im going to do with these..lol. Its my way of help keeping his teeth filed down but thats for a very large puffer. Well other smaller puffers can kill and eat live small crabs too but not dwarf's though. Every once in awhile feed those lil snail to your DP's will help the puffer. Btw, I feed the live crabs to my fahaka once to twice a month.

well the ironic thing here is MY kid (who is 18) would be thrilled to watch snails get eaten alive.. she's odd like that lol.

I even have to turn my head and not watch when hubby smacks spiders and stuff inside the house.. He's like Clint Eastwood or something with that slipper.. LOL

Gina

GinaGV wrote:well the ironic thing here is MY kid (who is 18) would be thrilled to watch snails get eaten alive.. she's odd like that lol.

I even have to turn my head and not watch when hubby smacks spiders and stuff inside the house.. He's like Clint Eastwood or something with that slipper.. LOL

Gina

There you go, have your daughter start feeding your puffer the live snails so you don't have to..lol.