The Puffer Forum

Hi, I'm new to the Puffer Forum but have been using it for a long, long, time . I want a puffer more than anything, but only have a 10 gallon. I was wondering if I put a dp in there would it be hard to see, and would my tank look barren?

10 gallons can adequately one or two DPs I dont believe it will look barren, just make sure to add lots of cool decor for them to explore!

Thanks, but i mean more will the puffer be so small I won't see him?

No, I don't think so. I don't personally have any DPs but I know several people on here have one or two in a 10 gallon, and I've seen pictures of them, they seem to do quite nicely. Of course they're tiny and they like to hide, so it might be hard to find them every now and then, but it's not as though you will never see your fish

Have you read this pufferpedia article on them? the actual pedia is down while the site switches servers, but some of the articles are still available on the forum.
viewtopic.php?f=38&t=28629&p=309834&hil ... us#p309834

Thanks alot I'm extremely excited to join in on the puffer community

you're very welcome! i love this forum, i've learned so, so much, not only about my puff, but about others & the aquaria hobby (addiction) in general.

If you've seen DPs at the lfs keep in mind that those fish are still very young. Every DP I've ever seen at the store is about 1/4 to 1/3 it's adult size.


As said before get 1 or 2 DPs for your 10g and you won't be sorry. I'd go with 2. They will come out to see you every time you are near the tank. I'm looking at my DP tank right now and they have their little faces smashed against the glass looking at me. lol

So would getting just one would be a bad idea?

JRC3 wrote:As said before get 1 or 2 DPs for your 10g and you won't be sorry. I'd go with 2. They will come out to see you every time you are near the tank. I'm looking at my DP tank right now and they have their little faces smashed against the glass looking at me. lol

ahaha cute!

Puffboy55 wrote:So would getting just one would be a bad idea?

i don't necessarily believe it would be "bad." It's a matter of preference, I think. Puffers are very personable and really get to know their owners, and from what I understand that becomes less the case when they have tank mates. But there again, JRC3 just said that his recognize him just fine and they're not by themselves.

I think if i had another 10, I'd get 2. DPs aren't notorious for being aggressive like larger puffers are, and then you can watch them interact with one another

Okay, and also, should I get a male & female, or female & female?

Umm... that much I don't know. Sorry

It's cool You still gave me much more information than I expected

You probably won't be able to sex them at the lsf as they will be too young. But even young females tend to have much more defined spots and are lighter in color. Males tend to have blurry spots that kind form a line down there side all the way to the tail. They have a darker olive color on the top and a gold tint on the belly on down to the rear and tail. The fins also have a gold tint. Of course as they get older they develop the classic eye wrinkles and more defined belly line.

Here is a pic of my pair at about 6 months. They were adults here but they've grown and filled out much more since. You can see the difference in their spots male/female. She is on the right, male left. If you find some at the lfs I would pick 2 that look most like females and hopefully you'll be safe to wind up with at least one female.




Different angle of the male.

Sweet, I really love your fish!