The Puffer Forum

is there a small "hoover" fish/invert that wouldnt get picked on or eaten in a dwarf puff setup? theres lots of awkward to get to parts in my tank that accumilate with yucky stuff and i cant easily get to it with a syphon.

Not reallly a 'hoover' fish but have you thought about otto's? Some have made a good addition to a DP tank - mine included

ive got an otto at the moment, although it doesnt seem to make much of a dent in the algae! what about kuhli loaches? are they too appetisingly worm like? in my community tank they are always sifting through the sand looking for food

I wouln't personally recommend any fish with puffers apart from the combo I have just mentioned and again that would be with caution.

I have kept plecs with my DP's with no problem at all. However, I've considered myself to be lucky with puffer behaviour, as they've never shown any signs of nipping, except the occasional squabble between themselves.

Like Rocker says the best bet are Ottos, but, a smaller plec could be an option to. Being a plec you will have to more or less consider it as if you had added another couple of DPs, they are exceptionally messy.

You could try some shrimp - amano, if you can find them. I've have them in my DP tank for ages. The DP's don't bother them.

I keep a bristlenose pleco with my dwarf puffers, but I wouldn't do that in any tank smaller than a 20 long, and with plenty of hiding spaces for the pleco.

granted it was a larger tank, but I never had any problem with dps picking on sedentary fish like plecos or loaches.

I had a chinese algae eater of some sort or type in with my dwarf puffer, didnt fight at all, heck I even had a Red Tailed Cat in there for a while around 4" and it never ate the dwarf lol, now I have 2 bronze puffers in with my chinese algae eater and nobody seems to mind!

I totally second the ottos and amano shrimp... I often find the shrimp marked "algae eating shrimp". I actually added 6 new amano shrimp in my 29G DP tank today.

I also have/had a "pitbull" pleco with my DPs... not sure of the exact species but it was supposed to stay small like bristlenose plecos. I'm not even sure if it is still in there (it's a very heavily planted tank) but every time I give up on him I see him sucking on some driftwood.

I have had good luck with Skunk Botia in with S/A's and Dwarves.....they are nasty little fellas in their own right, but they seem to ignore the puffers and vice versa (puffers had the tank first, botias were added a couple years later).