The Puffer Forum

Hi all,

Long time of not posting.

Whilst being locked down i have decided to improve some of my ambush puffer tanks. I have a suvatti, miurus and baileyi. Mostly nearly fully grown (all between 4 and 6 inches). Kept in around 50 gallon long tanks. Obviously sand substrate and boringly decorated with a couple of randomly placed fake plants and rocks.

additionally I am resetting up an old 35 gallon for a small group of pea puffers.

I'd like to improve their tanks, possibly making them more natural looking.

Please can you share ideas and possibly even pictures of your own tanks for inspiration?

Thanks in advance...

I also struggle with decorating, but I thought I’d post with a few ideas I’ve thought of..

You could paint the backs of the tanks a color that brings contrast or helps with the atmosphere you’re looking for. Black, blue, etc... I know this is a basic tip, but helped a lot in the case of my amazon puffer tank. You could also create a custom 3D background out of styrofoam. This is a bit more of an art project, but there are videos on YouTube of how to do it.

Real plants would help a lot with creating a nicer look, maybe Anubias, java fern, or some other beginner plants for starters.

Some driftwood might also be nice to frame the tank, if you’re worries about the branches getting in the way of swimming space, there are still some less “branchy” driftwood pieces that can have a nice aesthetic appeal.. Also, I’ve heard using all the same color stone, type of branch, etc. and clumping the same types of plants together, layering (stones in front of plants, higher plants in back and shorter plants in front) all create good effects.. At the end of the day, you could find a tank you like online and try to replicate it (using cheaper and easier materials if need be).

Hopefully this is helpful, I understand this is all pretty much the basics and nothing especially original, but it’s good for me too to refresh on what I can do to help my tanks become more aesthetically appealing. It isn’t easy. Good luck!

For the pea puffers, if I ever had pea puffers, I always wanted to create a jungle of vallisneria for them to swim through, but this is just one idea!

I have my hairy puffer in a 65B so I try to make use of height in my decor And make it interactive for my puffer.

Full tank shot.

Puffer on its “perch”. It loves to sit atop this woord and watch whats going on


Center piece of wood acts as a cave where the puffer Will hang out in front of


Not super exciting decor but the puffer interacts with it all the time.