Pea Puffer Shoal
Posted: Sun Oct 11, 2026 2:53 am
I should probably not say shoal truly, they do their thing, and squabble. The only time they seem to care enough to be together is when something new enters the tank or when it is food time 
.
It's been a while since I was in this community, and whilst I no longer have green spotted of figure 8 puffers I do still keep a pea puffer "shoal".
I had a severe leg break some months back, and luckily my wife was able to take care of the most urgent aquarium needs. But maintenance of course faltered. After 4 months I was finally able to clean the filters and the glass again, and planted some new plants. CO2 had run out at some point and some plants had perished, whilst others had taken over completely.
Below is a shot right after cleaning/pruning/planting. It is a 350L/92G Juwel Trigon corner tank. It holds a small shoal of 12 pea puffers, 3 blue neon gobies and 2 handfulls of pygmy corydora along with a bunch of amano shrimp and theoretically more than three oto catfish. The pea puffers are luckily too busy with themselves to bother with any of the other tank inhabitants. Not optimal of course to keep them with other fish, it was a case of "it had to go somewhere temporarily", but then also followed by "impossible to catch them so I guess they live there now". If I could back in time I would go through the trouble of setting up and cycling a holding tank instead.
I have the continued contemplation and temptation to add another 12 murder beans
, I really feel like the more the merrier with these little guys
I am no videographer, so the quality is not great, but here is a short action shot
.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_qMRgGb-rE
.It's been a while since I was in this community, and whilst I no longer have green spotted of figure 8 puffers I do still keep a pea puffer "shoal".
I had a severe leg break some months back, and luckily my wife was able to take care of the most urgent aquarium needs. But maintenance of course faltered. After 4 months I was finally able to clean the filters and the glass again, and planted some new plants. CO2 had run out at some point and some plants had perished, whilst others had taken over completely.
Below is a shot right after cleaning/pruning/planting. It is a 350L/92G Juwel Trigon corner tank. It holds a small shoal of 12 pea puffers, 3 blue neon gobies and 2 handfulls of pygmy corydora along with a bunch of amano shrimp and theoretically more than three oto catfish. The pea puffers are luckily too busy with themselves to bother with any of the other tank inhabitants. Not optimal of course to keep them with other fish, it was a case of "it had to go somewhere temporarily", but then also followed by "impossible to catch them so I guess they live there now". If I could back in time I would go through the trouble of setting up and cycling a holding tank instead.
I have the continued contemplation and temptation to add another 12 murder beans
, I really feel like the more the merrier with these little guysI am no videographer, so the quality is not great, but here is a short action shot
.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_qMRgGb-rE
