The Puffer Forum

So I'm new to this site and new to puffers. I did some research and decided to get south American puffers (colomesus asellus I believe). I have 3 in a 36 Bow Front fresh water tanks with sone live plants, rock, 3 columbian tetras, 6 danios (cherpai I think), 1 red claw shrimp, and 1 electric blue crayfish 3.5". I am always up for suggestions and comments. I am thinking about getting 3 more SAP's to complete the tank.
I have a question regarding my small tank that I've had up and running for years now. It is a 10g lightly planted. I have turned it into a ramshorn snail and hopefully cherry shrimp factory to provide food for the puffers. My question is what could I put in there that wouldn't eat the shrimp fry and snail eggs that could survive in a 10g and has to be interesting. I know options are limited due to size of tank but I hope I can do something cool. I thought about dwarf puffers but I'm not sure. I've had cichlids in the past in 55g tanks and other oddballs in 20g tanks.
So now what?

Question about puffer feeding. I have read a lot of forums and information on feeding but I thought I might as well ask. Since my SAP's are young (maybe an inch), is what I'm feeding them alright?
Food: frozen blood worms, frozen brine shrimp, black worms, extreme pellets, some micro pellets made for loaches, ramshorn snails, and some ghost shrimp and soon hopefully red cherry shrimp.

I would say that the tank is to small, but I am no expert with SAPs so I will let someone else give you more accurate info.

oh and...

Welcome to the forum!

I wouldn't add any more SAPs unless you get a larger tank. They are skittish enough without having to be crowded. A diet heavy in snails is your best course. Feeder shrimp etc may be nice as a snack but very impractical. I bread cherry reds for my SAPs but just ended up with a display tank of them. Feeding them to the SAPs, although interesting isn't going to be anything near a staple diet.

Also having more SAPs means more teeth trimming. I'd go through it at least a few time before you even consider getting anymore. Get over those hurdles then you can start thinking about expanding

See: Puffer Dentisty: library/hospital/dentistry/
and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENX6NZ2Bb_c

welcome

Hey there,...Welcome to the neighborhood!!!

I would also agree that your tank is a little overstocked. SAP's need lots of swimming space to be comfortable. The minimum space requirement is usually 15 gal per fish. SAP's are a little more active than most puffers so the space is really necessary for them to stay healthy and happy.

They also require regular dentistry as it is next to impossible to keep their teeth worn down, even with regular snail feeding. Check the article in the library on puffer dentistry for referrence. You will need proper tools and possibly meds on a regular basis. If their teeth get too long and they are not trimmed, they will become unable to feed and will eventually starve.

The food list you have indicated sounds great,...variety is good.

As far as the 10 gal tank,...I would stick to the snails and cherry shrimp. If you add anything else to the tank you may have difficulty keeping a good colony of snails and shrimp.

Wow. Thanks for the replies. Since this was my first post I didn't know to make the site notify me of replies. So sorry for clogging the forums with more questions.
Also thanks for the video.
On tank news, I gave the 6 danios back to my LFS.
Still have 3 columbian tetra and 3 serapes which I might give away too if this is suggested.
I have the tank heavily filtered and a large fake coral rock in it that takes up half the tank. I think I'll get rid of that and put some more plants and drift wood to provide more space for swimming.
Thanks again.

Boy, if you were a little closer, I'd take your tetras!

Danios? Those are newt food.

Well I got rid of the tetras. I still have 2 corydoras, 1.5" crayfish, 2" red-claw shrimp, and a few ghost shrimp. I'm surprised the shrimp are still around with the puffers being there. I'm sure all inverts will be gone in a month. The puffers seem to be pretty happy with the added plants and less fish.
Thanks for all the advice!