The Puffer Forum

well im new to this site, im currently signed up to http://www.fishtankforums.com and one guy directed me here because i just bought a baby dwarf puffer .. when i say baby i mean baby hes the size of the gravel including his tail .. he is in a freshwater 10 gallon tank with a tetra - platy - and 2 zebra danios .. no one is bothering him thank god cuz i love the little buddy ..
i was just wondering if the little guy needs any special attention, and what should i feed him ?

also i was wondering if they are better kept in groups ?

The only real "special" need I would say is his food. He probably won't eat anything but pond snails and worms. You might get lucky with tiny pieces from a shrimp or krill. Chances are you are going to have to get a snail population tank to grow your own pond snails. If you have the extra room it is not a problem. You can actually do it in a 5 gall ($3) trash bucket (the little ones you put in your office) and if you want you can get an $11 aquatech filter (like I have on my snail tank) with a foam prefilter.

I wouldn't say the are "better" in groups but with about 5 gallons per fish and 3 females to one male you "might" not have problems. The other fish won't bother him but you have to worry about him bothering your other fish. He should be fine with the danios and tetras they are fast.

I wouldn

would freeze dried bloodworms work ? what about frozen bloodworms ?
none of the stores near me have live worms, but im worried a bout the little guy becaused as i stated hes so small i feel i would have to net him and put him in a little "betta" like cup so i can feed him .. would this be an option?
hes no bigger than a normal peice of gravel, and just swims around on the bottom of the tank

Hi

Frozen bloodworm will do your little guy fine, thoroughly de-frost before feeding, wriggle them under his nose, I'd be very surprised if he doesn't take them after a couple of days. With a dp that small, don't worry if he only takes one.

You probably already know about the importance of providing plenty of plants etc to keep him occupied. This also helps in time as you can drop a couple of worms on the plants for him to "hunt" out.

We panicked like crazy over ours initially, they are now almost a year old and have progressed to finely chopped (shredded would be a better description) mussel & cockle plus the snails but they still prefer bloodworms to just about anything else.

Stick with him, you'll love him

Good Luck
Chris

You prolly don't want to use a net on the little guy. I am sure people "do it all the time" with no problems, but potentially if he got stressed and puffed with air while in the net you would have a situation on your hands. They puff with water and they deflate themselves, with air they sometimes have problems and need to be "burped", burping a gravel size puffer..erm yikes. Using a bag or a cup gets easy after the first couple goes at it and it makes one less thing you ever have o worry about.

thank you guys .. i will try the frozen bloodworms tonight .. you guys have been very helpful

Since puffers don't eat when stressed out, and a DP can get huffy for over a day(heck, some get huffy for over a week) after getting moved to a new container, so I'd say ti's a very bad idea to try feeding that way.

yeah i just didnt knwo what would be the best way but i will keep him in the tank i am going to add soem live plants soon i have a little cave and some fake plants but imy 20 gal has some live plants that i need to put in this tank because they are getting eaten by my rosy barbs

It's generally a bad idea to combine a DP with tankmates, especially a tiny and vulnerable one, and your tetra and danios are schooling fish that will live shorter, more stressed lives without at least 5 buddies each, perhaps they should go into the 20 gallon with more of their own kind. The dwarf puffer will likely nip them eventually as well, fast fish do sleep, and turn around, and DP's are very curious fish. The DP will also feel much more comfortable with lots of plants, so moving those plants like you said is probably a good move, my DP's love live plants.

just switched in the plants for now and hes not doing anything different but their not a lot of plants, once i buy my double stripped lighting hood for my 20 gal and save up some more money im going to go on a planting spree and buying all different kinds of plants for the 10 and 20 gal .. but for now ill keepp the DP in the 10 gallon tank because hes so small he just swims on the bottom but when he gets bigger i would love to hput him and some othe rpuffers into my 20G tank

i tried feeding him some frozen bloodworms tonight and he didnt eat them .. i coudlnt dangle them in his face or anthign i dindt have a turkey baseter but a couple flew by, he acted like he was interested but then swam away, but then did the same thign many times .. any other possibilities that arentt live ?

This is how I always feed my DPs now and it works great:

1. Thaw bloodworms in a cup of tank water
2. Strain water through brine shrimp net
3. Hold net in the water, or close aquarium lid on the handle to hold it in place

I have been doing this for awhile on all of my tanks. All of my fish (not just DPs) run into any net as soon as I put it in the water now. Not that I would net any of my puffers, but it comes in handy if I need to move any of my other fish.

They really like to pick the worms through the small holes in the net.