The Puffer Forum

Hello everybody, after successfully running my first four foot community tank for 8 months, I have hooked myself up with a little 20 gallon affair for my bedroom and really want a puffer or two (or three).

At the moment what is on offer at the local shop is dwarf puffers, miurus and red-eye puffers. Others may crop up soon.
whats a good look for a first puffer in a tank that size?
cheers guys

Hey there!

Your best bet is going with the Dwarf Puffers, As they can be kept together, so you can have about 4

Try to get 1 male and 3 females as it will cut out aggression quite a bit, Oh and they love to be in heavily planted tanks too Hope this helps, but go to the pufferpedia for more info

cheers. I was kind of stuck between a few dwarf puffs and one or two redeyes (cos i really like the look of them) but wasnt sure. a little bunch of dwarfs does sound quite cute though

Depends on which "red eyes" they are. There are numerous species that are called red eyes, some stay very small, some get 6" and are unsuitable for a 20g tank.

pretty sure they are the lorteti ones

Lorteti don't usually play well with others, from my understanding.

Actually after ringing up again what they have as a redeye puffer is Tetraodon leiurus which from my understanding would be a larger species unsuitable for a 24" tank. They also have Tetraodon fluviatilis, but that is a brackish species is it not?
I am torn between 4 dwarf puffers or the miurus. would the tank be too small for a congo puffer? (I have the old filter from my four foot tank in there so it should be well-filtered) if a congo puffer would be ok, what are they like? do we have many fans on here? From what I have read it sounds like they arent very active, so will it just look like a stone most the time?

If you want to see a Congo puffer, they had quite a big one in Tranquility in Woodingdean when he went there a few weeks ago. He is often buried in the pebbles so he is quite hard to spot sometimes.If we hadn't already had ours I think we would probably have bought him! Our Congo is well loved, he spends most of his time buried up to his eyes in sand but he is quite a character and we wouldn't be without him, although a lot of people can't see the fascination in a fish you rarely get to see properly!
We also have 3 dwarf puffers and they are quite interactive and very amusing to watch. They are out most of the time begging for food and looking for attention . They are certainly full of character !!but the downside is they only live about 3 years !!
Our 3rd puffer is a F8 and she is quite beautiful if a little shy, she is a very busy fish and comes to say hello quite often, especially if she thinks I might feed her.
I guess you have to do your research and then make your choice.
Happy Puffer hunting
Sue
ps If by any chance you decide to buy the Congo, please let me know as we were planning a jaunt out to see him tomorrow as we have become very attached to him over the past few months!

I would love to know which shop you go to in Brighton? Than maybe we can pop in there tomorrow as well
Sue

im talking about tranquility! they have dwarfs, the miurus you are talking about, two T. liurus and one T.fluviatilis at the mo apparently! Well Im going up there tomorrow to make a purchase but I may go with the dwarfs, I dont know about getting a fish you can never see.. what is the upside of a congo puffer, are they characterful when you do manage to catch them swimming about?

I dont think a 20g is sufficient for a miurus (congo). They arent too common and are quite interesting. Thats why I would get one. If they could fit in a 20gal I would have one by now!

I was told Id need to buy RO water because brighton water is too hard for Dwarf puffers. Is this true, because I dont want to buy RO water every week?

I use our tap water which is like liquid breeze blocks. They should be fine

You don't need RO water, mine were just fine in tap water and mine is also liquid rock.

RO water is not good for FW fish anyway unless its mixed with regular tap water, as RO removes all of the essentials necessary for their health and well-being.