The Puffer Forum

Yay!
I got my three DPs today.
Their in an established 10g tank with a few ghost shrimp.
Anyone have any tips on how to keep em happy and healthy let me know, drop that knowledge like bombs ppl!
Thanks

Firstly I would suggest upgrading to a 15 gallon tank, at least. Dwarf Puffers need 5 gallons (A piece) at least. Housing three together in a ten gallon could cause aggression problems.

Your temperature should be between 74 and 82.5 F. Your pH: 6.5 - 7.2. The tank should be heavily planted/decorated with lots of broken eyelines.

Diet: Live and frozen foods, snails, freeze dried krill, frozen shrimp, black & bloodworms- live or frozen, ghost shrimp. Feed snails once a week to prevent overgrowth of constantly growing beak.

Pufferfish are extremly sensitive to nitrites and ammonia and should only be introduced into a fully cycled aquarium. Due to their messy eating habits, overfiltration is recommended. Don't forget to do water changes as well.

Here's a good link: ug.php/v/PufferPedia/Freshwater/C_Travancoricus/

Best of luck and have fun! =]

I've always did this. First DP 5 gal and additional puffs 3gal each

+1

You should probably be OK with the 3 in there, IF you only have one or 0 males.

Yeah they're not sexually mature yet so I did my best to sex them. Hopefully the one with a smidge of a dark line and more streamlined body will turn out to be male. The other two I'm fairly sure are gurls. The params are all good, I wouldn't buy puffs without hitting that research I know how particular they are from my exp with my young GSP. The tank itself has been established for over a year, I had some guppies in it before and moved them to a 29g.
I decided to so a biotope "ish" setup for the little guys, plants like the ones they would be in in the wild, etc. Plus it was allready a "blackwater" setup with its previous occupants, my sires for that guppy breeding I'm addicted to... lol. I pushed the reddish-tan smooth gravel up into hills in the back, and left a swath of bare aquarium glass in front, which I filled in with sand. The sandy level is left open for dashing around or whatever, since they seem pretty active. I left a good deal of wood in there and have enough live plants (And I admit, a couple fake!) so they can settle in, they aren't seeming aggresive or territorial except a pecking order at grub time, but I still plan on planting either some swords, OR some micro-sword plus bamboo... IDK yet.
I have two filters on the back, one on each side, either a 10 and a 15 or two 10s... I disremember. Lots of big ramshorns and pond snails to make tiny snacks are in there still too... 4-5 tiny Ghost Shrimp I bred as well... The little guys want the shrimp for dinner but haven't made a kill yet, learning curve I guess.
Anyways I'll try to put some pics up.

No beak on a DP so snails not an issue. My DP has snails in the Tank and eats worms.
Don't forget these figures bounded about here for the amount of DPs per Galllon is the absolute max'. My van says it'll do 120mph but if I drive it at that speed It'll fall apart or blow up so the Max' is not the norm'. Be kind to your DPs!!

-Jerry

jeromecarlyoung wrote:No beak on a DP so snails not an issue. My DP has snails in the Tank and eats worms.
Don't forget these figures bounded about here for the amount of DPs per Galllon is the absolute max'. My van says it'll do 120mph but if I drive it at that speed It'll fall apart or blow up so the Max' is not the norm'. Be kind to your DPs!!

-Jerry

What??

I think he means that just cause something says its possible to do it, doesnt mean its the best idea.

Yeah, but the way it's worded sounds like he's saying don't get them the max size tank as suggested, when I feel as though the tank size recommendations are actually minimum requirements, not max. Even so, why would he feel getting a larger tank is a bad thing likened to a vehicle going it's max speed?
I get the metaphor, but I think it's backwards somewhere.

DPs have beaks, just don't get overgrown problems with them.

The suggested tank sizes in the PufferPedia are the minimum tank sizes, not the maximum. The maximum tank size would be a non-trivial multiple of the minimum. Where fish are concerned, bigger is generally better.

Sorry about the dodgy metaphor but I was meaning if you run the tank at it's maximum capacity (fish per gallon) then if you have any problems with filter or disease etc then your fish are at greater risk.
If the fish are swimming in water which is not far being a problem for them then any future problems may be enough to push the fish over the limit. An example could be your DP gets a fish Lice and then treatment effects the Filter Bacteria; problems in a crowded tank will get a lot worse quicker than fish who have cleaner water and more space. Another example is you forget to do a water change for a day or two and then this becomes a problem for your fish health if you are a the max. These problems can build up to cause more problems. If you have less fish then any problems aren't so less often. If you go for less fish then you will have less porblems.

-Jerry

Checkin Back in!
The little guys are doing great. I thought the snails would be able to reproduce in there for them... But they have murdered even the ones 5 times their mass. They attack em and suck em out. The three baby ghost shrimp have gone the way of jimmy hoffa too... I guess they sleep with the fishes, lol.
I planted tome nice tall swords (Bleheri or Amazon, IDK) on either side and left the mid-front an open current area that swirls around. They love to play in there! Their diet has been whatever they can catch supplemented with ground up dried krill, which they dont seem to really care for, and bloodworms, which drive them WILD. I need to be careful though, they get stuffed so easy.
I remember an article RTR wrote saying that glass worms were a better staple.... where the heck am I gonna get those???
Until next time!
Oh yeah I have tank/DP pics Ill try to throw in the gallery soon too!

let us know when they are there