The Puffer Forum

I currently have a 29G long tank with 5 Dwarf Puffers. The tank is cycled, well planted and doing just perfect. However, the tank feels somewhat...empty. My puffers are super entertaining to watch but hard to apriciate for non-hobbyists. I had 3 fancy guppies in there for a bit, and I found no aggression or fin-nipping the whole time, the puffers seem very docile for their reputation. I was thinking about getting a few harlequin rasboras, cherry barbs or small hatchetfish to add a little more activity to the top of the tank. I figure this might bet me some hate, but...is this a bad idea?

How old are the puffers? If they are young then I would skip getting more fish. When they get older and more established they usually get more aggressive. Mine do fine with larger shrimp (full grown cherries and amano shrimp) and otos. I would say 5 dwarf puffers, 3 otos, and a bunch of larger grown shrimp (might become food) would be good.

Hi, i have my puffers (now 6) for over a year now and i didn’t’ find them as terribile as people says. They live with 4 japonica/amano shrimps and 9 otocinclus. They never attacked bloodfin tetras (consider that I had to give them away because they stole the puffer food.)
DP in captivity are feeded every day so they don’t’ need to “hunt”.
Please don’t keep only 3 oto! They are extremely shy, so is better to have more of them in the tank: they will be more lively and you’ll see them around.

I have tried to tell that to many people on this form that swear by it that they will turn wicked. Good luck trying to change there mind. They are die hard gloom and doom on any fish put in with a pea puffer. I roll my eyes at the narrow minds and check my tank daily to make sure there eyes are not plucked out by the pea puffers

Only ever had a pair of males that weren't killers. All the rest were intolerant of anything else in there space. To add its not doom and gloom its long term experience which I rely on more than short term luck. It's your tank and ultimately you can only make the choice what to add, just be prepared to remove mutilated fish and rehome any survivors. It might not come to that but ime it likely will. I have kept multiple dp tanks for many years and luck was not on my side for tank mates apart from my male pair, even in the most highly decorated tank. Just my input fwiw, ymmv