The Puffer Forum

I got myself a new tank for Christmas this year and I'm going to try again to set up a puffer tank and hope it doesn't end up getting used for someone else's unwanted fish again before I can get my hands on one. I'm looking for either a dwarf or one of the red eye varieties (which one would depend on what I can find). I'm looking for something not too tiny and that I will actually be able to find in the tank though. I have never seen an adult freshwater puffer in person. Could anyone that has any of these puffers give me some type of size comparison? I know how large they get inch wise, but it's difficult to judge based on that, and pictures tend to be the same unless there's something to compare. The only DPs I've seen have only been roughly the size of a peanut, and if that's as big as they get I might try my luck at finding one of the red eyed varieties.

An adult dwarf puffer, at least a nice round female, is in my experience roughly a bit smaller than an American quarter, except spherical of course, plus tail.

Both DPs and red eyes can be hard to find in a densely planted tank. When I had F8s, though, they were easy to spot and extremely active and social. If your new tank is large enough, minimum 15 gallons for one F8, and you're willing to go brackish, F8s are a great option to consider. They grow to 3 inches and are probably my favorite of all puffers.

I have considered an f8. Looking at my ruler and thinking of a 3in circular fish in size and dimensions of my tank I'm a little iffy on though. I'm a little more iffy on putting a tank with salt on my desk right above my computer. I am looking for a puffer with an interesting and interactive personality though.

What size tank are we talking about? Then we may be able to help you find a specific puffer, there are a good number of fw puffers you can own but they are really out of season right now. Aquabid is a good choice or ebay would probably be your best bet at this time of the year, the best time to get puffers from stores is spring - summer.

MidnightSkies wrote:I have considered an f8. Looking at my ruler and thinking of a 3in circular fish in size and dimensions of my tank I'm a little iffy on though. I'm a little more iffy on putting a tank with salt on my desk right above my computer. I am looking for a puffer with an interesting and interactive personality though.

I have about 500 Liters of salt water looming over my PCs & server . No real issues there as long as water changes don't involve getting half of the water on the floor .

Computers and water do not mix. Even computers and high humidity should be avoided.

RTR wrote:Computers and water do not mix. Even computers and high humidity should be avoided.

Whilst electronics and water generally do not mix, an aquarium above a closed computer case is generally no problem, as long as you take care not to spill liters during water changes. My server has been okay at any rate sitting next to the aquarium on the floor, it even got a good splash once or twice.

I'm not really limited by tank size at this point. I can easily play musical tanks with as many empties as I have sitting around now. I was hoping to put a dwarf in my new 5 gallon, but I might be reconsidering and just moving my betta into it. For larger tanks I have an empty 10g, 30g, and 55g. Plan is to move my community from the 20g to the 55g though, so then I'll have an empty 20g. So I'm really not limited by tank size. What I set up is just going to depend on what species I decide on. Cycling is no problem. Already have media waiting sitting in my main tank.

Just looking for something with a nice active and interactive personality and a decent adult size.

I've had a tank on my desk for years and it doesn't worry me. Salt creep on the other hand does.