The Puffer Forum

Hello everyone!

I finally have my first Dwarf Puffer. Got him/her on Tuesday for my daughters tank and I think it's a female, but I'm not a 100% sure. Could someone help me confirm the gender? Sorry for the crappy cell phone pics. I'll try and get some better ones later.

That's not a DP, it's a SAP: ug.php/v/PufferPedia/Freshwater/C_Asellus/
library/puffers-in-focus/sap/
library/hospital/dentistry/

Oh crud!

It was sold to me as a DP...

Ok, so now I'm a bit panicked. How similar are the two? What big things would I need to change?

Read the links I posted.

He needs lots of swimming room for a small fish trust me on that one. Their teeth grow at an alarming rate so 90+% of his diet should be home reared snails or you will need to perform dentistry on him. Great fish to have by the way but hard work if you don't give 100%

bertie 83 wrote:He needs lots of swimming room for a small fish trust me on that one. Their teeth grow at an alarming rate so 90+% of his diet should be home reared snails or you will need to perform dentistry on him. Great fish to have by the way but hard work if you don't give 100%

Ok so where do I start with these home reared snails? What kind are they and where's a good spot to get them at? Also, I have a spare 1 gallon tank. Could I put the snails in there?

Not sure where the best place to find them is over there but others will chime in and help with that. A 5gal container would be minimum but a 10 gal would likely be best to provide the amount you will need. Common pond or ramshorns snails are what you are after and lots of them to get you going, be sure to quarantine them first. I cannot stress enough that this fish needs lots of swimming room, more is definitely better, they also do better in groups but you can house them alone in a big tank with loads of decor to explore.

Look for snails on Ebay: library/feeding/basic-snail-breeding/

Thanks for the help everyone. Looks like I got a lot of research to do and some snails to buy.

And do not get intimidated or discouraged. Your new wet friend is well worth the effort.

I was able to get 10 little snails for free today from Petsmart. Going to try hitting up a couple more places this weekend to see if I can find more.

Question: how big is too big for the snails? Will my SAP even mess with them if they are too large?

Rule of thumb for snail is try to feed them ones the same size as their eye. Much larger and they tend to eat the exposed part of the snail and not crush through the shell (at least with my gsp).

+1 to the above. About eye size +- is a good size. If they are bigger crush them between your fingers before dropping them in, they still have crunch factor.

So...back to my original question. Lol

Can anyone tell what the gender of my SAP is?

PuffDadie wrote:So...back to my original question. Lol

Can anyone tell what the gender of my SAP is?

You cannot tell the sex of saps