The Puffer Forum

hey everyone,

I have a 3 foot by 18 inch by 18 inch aquarium, with an Ehiem Classic filter. I would like to keep a puffer fish, alone or in a group, and perhaps with other types of fish. But I dont know where to start.

I know there are lots of different puffer fish out there, but I just have some questions:

1. Could I keep more than one puffer in a tank this size?
2. What fish other than puffer fish could I keep with it/them?
3. What kind of cost can I expect for food with keeping puffer fish?
4. Do you breed the snails for food? Is this easy? where can I find out how to do it?
5. With a tank the size I have, what would you suggest as a good selection/variety of fish?

Thanks.

That's about 50 gallons I believe. As to whether you can keep more than one, it depends on the species you want to get. Check the Pufferpedia. We recommend species-only for the vast majority of puffers, usually single-specimen tanks. Cost depends on the puffer type. Yes, we breed snails for food and its fairly easy. There's a snail breeding article in our library.

Your best bet is to start looking through the Pufferpedia at the species types and see if you can find one you like that may be available to you. Also read all of the articles in our Library.

The answer to most of those questions will depend on what puffer you decide to keep. And that will depend on what you can find locally.

You could go with one GSP (and eventually a marine tank), 3 Figure 8's in brackish, one (possibly two if you find a pair but you'd have to be lucky) of one of the freshwater lurker species. Or a whole big herd of dwarf puffers.

If you can find South Americans (SAP's) you could have a small school of them, however they are a bit more rare than your usual GSPs and figure 8's. Modestus are easier to find, but they are very aggressive and I wouldn't suggest trying to keep multiples in the same tank.

If it was my choice, I'd probably go with 2 or 3 figure 8 puffers. But make sure you read up on brackish water and how to make it, you need marine salt such as Instant Ocean, not "aquarium salt".

Oh also, what size is your Eheim filter? Puffers need a lot of filtration and IMO the 2213 is barely large enough for a 10 gallon tank.