The Puffer Forum

I hate handling fish with my hands because I'm afraid they'll jump, but its the only way I could get up close and take a clean shot.
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I purchased 3 baby "Neon Puffers" at my local exotic fish store today for $6. But when I search them I get nothing. Need help figuring out what they are.
I know they arent GSP's,they're fins are yellow at the base. and they don't have the white belly.

That appears to be a dwarf puffer, and judging from the price, I'd say it's probably safe to assume they are. They are a true freshwater puffer, requiring around 5 gallons per puffer. Look them up in the pufferpedia for more detailed information.

Btw, NEVER take a puffer out of the water, if they inflate with air, it could potentially kill them.

Thanks. I've heard mixed things. do all aquarium puffers expand? I've only seen my GSP puff up once maybe, hard to tell. It tried swimming up my canisters intake and got stuck at the mouth of it and all I saw was a giant white ball, but wasnt sure if it was from the suction or it really did puff up.

and how would they do in a lower salinity brackish tank with a gsp? Or is it not even worth trying?

No way could you keep these species together. The GSPs would kill those lil fellas, no doubt.
Yes, all puffers have the ability to puff.

+1 to PP, GSP's are much much larger and more aggressive, your poor puffers would end up as GSP snacks.
It's unlikely for them to puff, but better to be safe then sorry. Haha, I had a similar scare with a GSP I had before... anyways, they could probably stand small fluctuations in salinity, but I wouldn't bother... You're lucky to find one of the few puffer that's 100% freshwater, so why mess with brackish lol? In the long run, they will be healthier in freshwater. Also they don't get bigger then 1", So a 10-15 gallon tank would be adequate for 3 Dps (dwarf puffers). As with all puffers, it's recommended to overfiltrate, so get a filter rated twice as high as you need. Dwarf puffers also enjoy heavily planted tanks!

Check out this site, it's a goldmine of DP info http://www.dwarfpuffers.com/

The tank I'm in the midst of converting to a brackish tank is a 55g with turnover of 940gph. It's for my GSP, it's getting to about 1 1/2 inches so its getting time to move him to a higher salinity. I don't mind starting up another smaller tank just for these guys though. They look very neat.

Good, because if you want to keep them, you will HAVE to start up a new tank, freshwater is a breeze though and DPs are pretty easy to take care of, especially compared to GSPs. Good luck with your new puffers! Your lucky, I can't find dwarf puffers anywhere locally >.<. Sounds like your GSP will be very happy! Too often people think GSPs can be stuffed in tiny tanks... guy at my local fish shop told me I could keep 2 GSPs in a 5 gallon tank, pure freshwater... no joke.

Ouch. I've heard you can keep them in freshwater when they are smaller, but they need brackish water when they get bigger, and so far mine doesn't seem to mind too much. She enjoys the mollies and dinosaur bichir she's kept with for now. I used to have a second one but my tank caught something nasty last month and killed it along with 3 or 4 other fish. She enjoys the bamboo in the tank too. I went to a store my mom knew of when she was a kid, He had a 20 gallon full of probably 60-70 baby dps.

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