The Puffer Forum

Hey everyone! I have a 20 gallon with 3 dwarf puffers (1 male, 2 female) and 4 danios that I used to help cycle the tank. My danios are starting to get old and I'm looking for new species to add once they start dying. I've heard people say cories and otos both make suitable tankmates, but I wanted some "professional" opinions. My puffers are generally not aggressive, aside from the occasional territorial behavior when my male gets in one of those moods. They usually ignore my danios, but I have seen a bite missing out of a fin a few times.

Do y'all think either cories or otos would be ok with my puffers? Or any other suggestions?

Nothing really for dps, ounce for ounce very aggressive in my opinion. Personalities do vary but you have already seen some aggression with nipping

Ottos *may* be ok. I had 6 ottos in with 3 dp's in a 20 gallon but they didn't last very long. I honestly don't know if it was because of the DP's or because ottos have some weird bacteria issue with digestion that can sometimes cause issues. Amano shrimp did very well with my DP's (but not with my red-eye!) Just make sure you get them fairly large. I would not try corys personally.

I have amanos, zebra danios, and a peppermint plec. The plec is not OK in a 20. I have managed to keep a rose goby with them as well but this is just dumb luck. Typically you need a fast fish that does have long fins that is the appropriate size for your tank.

nikkiv13 wrote:Hey everyone! I have a 20 gallon with 3 dwarf puffers (1 male, 2 female) and 4 danios that I used to help cycle the tank. My danios are starting to get old and I'm looking for new species to add once they start dying. I've heard people say cories and otos both make suitable tankmates, but I wanted some "professional" opinions. My puffers are generally not aggressive, aside from the occasional territorial behavior when my male gets in one of those moods. They usually ignore my danios, but I have seen a bite missing out of a fin a few times.

Do y'all think either cories or otos would be ok with my puffers? Or any other suggestions?

I have had success with many types of fish (mostly tetras) with my dwarf pea puffers but I have a large tank. I also hand feed mine daily black worms and breed trumpet snails for them. I think the aggression some people experience is caused by not being able to feed them what they need properly. This small puffer cant even begin to be compared to some of your larger puffers. I have done a lot of research and I am finding more and more info that they can live peacefully under the right conditions. Mine are adults and going in to 7 months with no issues. They did not turn viscous when they matured.

You have already seen the fierce side to these guys, biting fins. Best kept to species only imo

Welch4 wrote:I have amanos, zebra danios, and a peppermint plec. The plec is not OK in a 20. I have managed to keep a rose goby with them as well but this is just dumb luck. Typically you need a fast fish that does have long fins that is the appropriate size for your tank.

Sorry if this is a silly question, but what is a rose goby? Is it a freshwater fish? I cannot find them using the powers of the Google-machine

Well two reason for that. First is I ment to post rainbow goby, which is a common name for it. The full name would be ......Stiphodon ornatus. There are at least a few freshwater gobies that I know of none of which I would advise keeping with dps.

I do have like tons DP after a trip to a nearby fish farm...(they had like a huge tank filled with 200 DPS) and I must say if you do wish to keep DPs with other species make sure
1. you provide them a huge space (to ease territorial disputes)
2. lots of decos or plants ( i have fast growing water sprites and Java moss)
3. make sure they are well fed
4. and fast and puffer-wise tankmates
------- which I have successfully kept with puffers in multiple tanks (my DPs are adults fyi)
- ghost shrimps (DPs never dare to touch them cause these feisty crustaceans use their long arms to push away nosy puffers)
- CPOs or Dwarf Crayfish (generally both crayfish and puffer seem to know their barriers - CPO raise their claws when a puffer gets to close but never attack cause they are just little 'lobsters' they just love to rooster up)
- Malayan and Amano shrimp (cause they are bigger)
- Kuhlis (so long as you have cracks & crevices for them to hide they are fine)
- Panda Garras
- rummy nose tetra
- feeder guppies (smaller and less colourful variant of fancy guppies)
- pygmy cories
- bumblebee goby (cause they are nasty little fishies themselves although I wouldn't recommend as personally my BBGs do better in brackish water while you can't keep DPs in brackish setup)

That being said it is still a gamble as I noticed that even fish do have different temperament. Most of the DPs I have exhibit low aggression. Generally DPs are at their worst when with other DPs, they are nastiest to their own kind.And should you decide to add more recommended tankmates such as Ottos and Kuhlis be prepared for nipped fins in the first few days as the fish would be new and have yet to familiarise with their surrounding and become puffer-wise. I still do agree that the best setup is pure DPs only.

trip to a nearby fish farm...(they had like a huge tank filled with 200 DPS)

I wish you had taken a photo of that!

I only had 2 dps that would not shred shrimp, ghost and amano were ripped apart in most cases even when the dps were added after

My DPs killed & ate everything else I added to their tank.

Thanks for the input, I think I'll add more hiding places then try amano shrimp.

Also, I can't help but find this adorable. Occasionally I'll see my male (Andy) watching my danios, and sometimes he'll chase them a little bit (without actually catching them) then turn and look at me to see if I caught him! What a mischievous little guy

nikkiv13 wrote:Thanks for the input, I think I'll add more hiding places then try amano shrimp.

Also, I can't help but find this adorable. Occasionally I'll see my male (Andy) watching my danios, and sometimes he'll chase them a little bit (without actually catching them) then turn and look at me to see if I caught him! What a mischievous little guy

It's not quite as adorable when the danios get seriously hurt.