Dorm room tank...

[hamburgler]

Long time lurker first time poster.

I'm gonna be setting up a small tank for my desk in my dorm in the fall. I'm planning on an eclipse system 6...not sure what to put in it. I know i'm limited and have done lots of forum browsing. I am looking for stocking ideas in terms of somethings thats interesting with some personality. So far it seems as though dwarf puffers are the ticket. I was just wondering if anyone had any other input. BTW i plan on doing frequent water changes and i'm not worried about something that will take some work with feeding and whatnot as a break from work is always good.

OK im done with this essay, and i'm sure this has been asked a million times already!
Thanks!

[joannde]

Personally, I'd go with a betta and 3 panda or 3 pygmy cories. ALL of them are full of personality and the cories are a HOOT

[tropicfishman]

corys and betta are awesome, but the puffers are brackish so you do needa mix some aquarium salt in the tank for them, so invertabrates are outta the question if you do the puffers and welcome to AA you ever havea questiuon, truyst me the people on here can answer it in minutes

[hamburgler]

Thanks for the input. Although i do believe dwarf puffers are completely freshwater...according to dwarfpuffers.com. Compared to figure 8's, spotteds, etc.

Thanks for the welcome.

[Elle2]

Yes, my lfs claims that thiers are completely fw. They are adorable.. I really want some but apparently they are difficult to feed in a community tank... unless you are prepared to feed all of your fish live bloodworms all the time (acording to the lfs). But If I had another tank I would definitely go with them.
Having said that, I second joannde's comment on the Panda's... she recommended them to me and I love them... they are hilarious (and keep the bottom really clean).

[verucaproduce]

Dwarf puffers are beautiful little creatures! I had a couple (a loooong time ago) but unfortunately the store that sold them to me didn't tell me of their eating requirements and they didn't make it all that long.

They were cute when they got caught in the flow from the filter and it would push them downward toward the front of the tank - they would puff up!

[JustOneMore20]

I personally think a 6g is too small for cories. The pygmy type may be ok, but not pandas. They get about 2 inches, so if you go by the inch per gallon rule, 3 of them would be stocked. I don't use this rule, but I am using it as an example atm.

I would go with a betta and maybe a couple ottos. If possible plant the tank. Small tanks make nice aquascapes.

I don't think dwarf puffers would work in that size tank. The general rule is about 3 gals per fish, meaning you could only have 2 in a 6g. They also can be aggressive towards each other and you'd have to make sure you got 1m/1f. Sometimes though males can be aggressive towards females, that's why its suggested to use the ratio 1m/2f. They will only take frozen or live food (some will only take live) and can be hard to feed. They shouldn't be kept alone because one would get lonely and may not eat. They are completely freshwater and really need a planted tank with alot of room (even though they are tiny).

[hamburgler]

A typical tank on dwarfpuffers.com is a 5-6g with 2 or 3 puffers in it. I'm sure 2 dp's will be fine in a 6g planted...frequent water changes, etc.

Any other suggestions?

[Elle2]

Yes I think there may be more than one variety of dp? Is that possible? The ones at my lfs are VERY small and the people there (knowledgeable- small exclusive aquarium store) said they are very peaceful. They said they get along with other fish but the problem is that they will only eat live blood worms which means all your other fish start to eat them and eventually won't eat anything else. They said you can keep many together in a smallish space... but as I said these were REALLY small and they said that they didn't get bigger (less than an inch). But as justonemore noted this seems counter to the research I had done.

[DepotFish]

No I think there is one variety of dp that gets 1 inch. There are several small freshwater puffers though that might be mixed up or mislabeled.