Dwarf Puffer

[xkenneth]

Hi All,

Happened to come across a Dwarf Puffer recently, and being is it is the only one i've seen in my city for months, I had to get him. Two questions, what do the other dwarf puffer owners on the board feed their puffers? Also, how do they do in community tanks? I've heard they're for SO tanks but I placed a feeder in his tank just to see the other day, and he really couldn't have cared that it was in there. No nipped fins, no interest, nothing. Thanks for the advice.

Regards,
Ken

 

[GlitcH]

I'm also interested in these little guys........I've heard differing opinions on them.
So far I'm leaning towards trying a few of them out in a community tank.

dwarfpuffers.com has alot of info. and azgardens.com is selling them for 5bucks.
They say they are fine if kept in large groups.
http://www.azgardens.com/misc_fish.php

 

[noncentric]

I've seen that azgardens.com article. I think that's the only time that I've read about DP's being non-aggressive, community-type fish...and I've read about DP's at quite a few different places.

As with all fish, there may be some that don't act the way they're "supposed to" act - so it's kind of a hit-or-miss type thing. I've seen DP's in the pet store tanks with other fish (silver dollars, catfish, etc) and the DP's would "charge" at the bigger fish - but not do any biting.

DP's do better in tanks with a lot of visual barriers, since that creates more 'territories' and the DP's can claim a small area for themselves and then just defend that small area.

Personally, I'd say go ahead and try them in a community tank and watch them closely for a while - and have a back-up plan of a separate tank for them in case they don't do well in the community tank. But then again, they're pretty easy to find around here for $4-5. I'd be more cautious if I had to order them online and pay high shipping.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes. That http://www.dwarfpuffers.com/ site has gotten good reviews.

 

[sir_dudeguy]

dwarf puffers will eat mostly brine shrimp, blood worms, and others stuff like that. They do need some baby snails to keep their beak/teeth down. I had one in a 10 gallon with a bunch of neons...well, after a couple months, i started to notice nipped fins on the neons, and i caught him in the act of it a few times. I then moved all the same fish into a 40 gallon and had NO problems after that. There were quite a bit more decorations/plants and everything in the 40 also, so that might have contributed. He looked so funny in that tank, because he was easily the smallest fish, but he was still the boss of everyone. NO one bothered him, and if he went for a piece of food, they all left it. He never did bite anyone again tho, from what i could tell. There were 4 kuhlie loaches, 5 marbled hatchet fish, um...there was some other stuff in there too i think...

and later i had him w/South american puffers in that tank, and he did bite them. they never did anythnig back tho, cuz he was still boss lol