The Puffer Forum

So, today i went on a road trip out of town to check out some aquarium stores.
I have always been very interested in dwarf (pea) puffers. I saw some at the store, and picked them up, (sort of a spur of the moment thing)


Anyways, At the moment i have a moderately planted 20 gallon long tank, with about 10-15 cardinal/rummy nose tetras.

Having nowhere to put the puffers, i put them in that tank,


I have read around a lot about the puffers being aggressive towards other fish. Now i don't mind much if my tetras get beat up,

The thing i am worried about is the puffers getting beat up by the tetras The puffers are very small, around the size of a pea, and my tetras are all around three quartrs of an inch in size.

Do you think ill have any problems with it?


I will add, i am slowly getting rid of the tetras, little by little. Because i don't want to take appart the tank to catch them all.


If anybody has any information that could help me, please pass it on!



thanks

Your puffers will be fine. I am afraid for the tetras though.

+1, wait until your puffers are a little bigger and when the lights go out you'll start loosing tetras

Or at least pieces of them.

I do hope to get the tetras out before the puffers are big.

I have removed about half of them, it's a work in progress because I don't want to disassemble everything in the tank

It's really not as difficult as it appears & you can get in a good cleaning of the substrate, after all the decor is moved out. LOL, I've had to catch fast fish in a 90g reef tank with >200lbs of live rock in there!

Yeah, you are right.

I guess tomorrow's gonna be fish tank cleaning day!

So long it is not predatory fish like bichirs, catfish etc your pea puffer will be fine. The thing is once a dp has settled in your tank, it doesn't matter how big or small they WILL start attackig and nipping any fish. Unless if you are keeping otos or kuhli loaches, you will see nipped and ragged fins. And if you do want to add any invertabrates, it is a gamble with shrimps. CPO's or any dwarf lobsters and bigger shrimps like Amano/Yamatos would be fine. Anything smaller would result with one fat and happy smirking puffer.

A couple weeks later, I have lost a few tetras,

But most of them are looking alright, a bit of ragged looking fins, but not awful.

Haven't touched my rock shrimps yet either

Please rehome those poor tetras!

Pufferpunk wrote:Please rehome those poor tetras!

Youl be happy to hear that next week my buddy is taking them off my hands

nick709r wrote:So, today i went on a road trip out of town to check out some aquarium stores.
I have always been very interested in dwarf (pea) puffers. I saw some at the store, and picked them up, (sort of a spur of the moment thing)


Anyways, At the moment i have a moderately planted 20 gallon long tank, with about 10-15 cardinal/rummy nose tetras.

Having nowhere to put the puffers, i put them in that tank,


I have read around a lot about the puffers being aggressive towards other fish. Now i don't mind much if my tetras get beat up,

The thing i am worried about is the puffers getting beat up by the tetras The puffers are very small, around the size of a pea, and my tetras are all around three quartrs of an inch in size.

Do you think ill have any problems with it?


I will add, i am slowly getting rid of the tetras, little by little. Because i don't want to take appart the tank to catch them all.


If anybody has any information that could help me, please pass it on!



thanks

I have had 3 pea puffers in a 75 gallon community tank with schools of tetras for well over 8 months now "NO DEATHS" time will tell you may be lucky and they will do fine. Sex will make a difference as males are more aggressive Mine are two females and a male and were sexed when I bought them they were already adults. Just watch your tank closely. I have watched pea puffer run head on to other fish and swim away with out so much as a puff even. So there not all killers

His fish are already being attacked by the puffers.

bertie 83 wrote:His fish are already being attacked by the puffers.

He said the fins were a little ragged that doesn't prove the pea puffer did it. There can be other reasons for ragged fin. He never states he saw the fish attacking you are assuming that. I still have 3 very peaceful puffers in my community tank with no issues

I do wonder how much keeping >1 dwarf puffer affects their aggression level. I have kept my single male DP in a 5.5g with 3 otos and 4 amano shrimp, now in a 10g with just the 4 amanos. I've never seen any evidence of any aggression. These have always been extremely densely planted tanks, but the amanos clearly don't give a damn about the puffer if their behavior is any indication.

It could just be a coincidence because perhaps almost all DP owners keep more than 1, but nearly every negative experience I read about involves multiple puffers in the tank. With my own guy recently moving into a 10g, large-ish for a solo DP tank, I thought about trying to find him a couple of girlyfriends for some potential breeding. But then, I thought, why potentially ruin what has been a perfect ownership experience? It seems to me that this DP, almost certainly a full adult at around 1 year old now, has never had reason to act on his territorial instincts. Maybe that's a good thing.