Submitted by Terrance
Synonyms: Carinotetraodon Travancoricus
Common Names: Pea Puffer, DP, Malabar Puffer, Pygmy Puffer
Category: Puffer
Family: Tetraodontidae
Origin: the western part of the southern tip of India
Main Ecosystem: Wetlands, rivers, and some lakes in India
Salinity: Pure freshwater
pH: 6.5-7.0
Temperature: 77-83F or 25-28C
Potential size: 1in or 2.5cm
Water Region: Bottom to mid levels of your tank
Tank size: 5 gallons per DP. Although you can keep 1 DP in a 5 gallon tank, I strongly encourage 20 gallons (which can house 4 DP at most), especially a long tank. Almost all puffer experts will advise against tall tanks. The bigger tanks helps dilute all the waste. Nano tanks can crash easily from uneaten food or unexpected rise in waste level.
Temperment/Tank mates: Active little buggers. Very few species are recommended as tank mates due to aggressive and territorial nature. Otocinclus algae eater is a good cleaner for your tank once you get it running for a few months. You can also add in various shrimps. Those are the two winning choices for this puffer. You just need to know that all other species (even to other DP) has a high chance of getting nipped to death or eaten. Slow moving, long-finned fish should not be in the same tank as a DP. Each DP has its own personality. Some may be shy and hides a lot. Other DPs may attack anything on sight. If you ever get a group of DPs, make sure there is only ONE male and all the other DP is a female. Males inside a tank are known to show aggression towards each other.
Diet: Varying daily meals. Feed these puffs some snails once or twice per week to minimize teeth overgrowth. If teeth are not maintained by feeding them hard shelled food once or twice a week, then you will be required to manually cut the DP's teeth yourself. This is extremely difficult because the DP is so tiny to hold and their small teeth is so hard to trim. You can also feed frozen raw shrimp or mussel from the grocery store. From time to time, you can also feed some blood worms and live worms. If you ever decide to feed your DP raw shrimp or anything that looks like a shrimp, then it will increase the chance of your DP eating your favorite red cherry shrimp your tank. It is very easy to overfeed a DP because they are so tiny. They will eat until their stomach explode. Feed enough to make its belly slightly rounded. Its ok to skip a meal once a week. Overfeeding will also shorten their lifespan.
Care: They need fully cycled tanks since puffers are scaleless and are very sensitive to traces of ammonia or nitrite. Owners are required to perform at least 50% water change per week and have strong filtration because puffers are messy eaters and release a lot of waste! Your filter should turn the water 10x the amount of the water volume. So if you have a 20 gallon, you want a filter of at least 200 gph. If your puffer is too small, then think about adding something to the intake of the filter to protect your puffer from getting sucked/stuck to the intake itself. These are very active puffer and territorial, so they need a lot of decor to keep a territory for each DP. Break up each puffers line of sight from each other because they don't want to see each other.
Activity: DPs will eventually recognize their owner and beg for food constantly. When owner is not around, the DP will go back to hunting and protecting their territory. They don't need friends or a tank buddy because 1 puffer will not get lonely. As far as the personalities of the puffer, I've always thought having more puffers will bring out more of their personality. After doing much research, I've been told that having only 1 puffer will bring out the most of its personality. Almost all puffers are territorial, so they don't like tank mates.
Lifespan: Approximately 4-5 years in captivity
Sexing: Males have a dark line through its underbelly with wrinkles behind the eyes. Females do not have either of these characteristics. Males are darker with slightly yellowish underbelly and brownish back. Females are lighter with whitish underbelly and lighter back (with more distinct black spots).
Acclimation: If you ever decide to get 2-3+ DP, then get all of them at the same time. This will minimize the chances of the established DP bullying the new puff due to territory reasons. If you get a DPs at different times, try rearranging all the decor around so that the new DP has an equal chance of establishing its territory. Remember, I recommend having only 1 male in a group of DPs.
Comments: If you're into puffers, then this is the best starter puffer you could possibly own. Message me if you have questions about care. If you don't like dwarf puffers, then I could recommend you to other species of freshwater and/or brackish water puffers. I would like to add more to this post if you have some useful information. I copied and paste most of the things from my F8 profile thread.
Sources: 100+ hours of reading about puffers online at various puffer websites. I also have 1 dwarf puffer. Dwarf Puffer Carinotetraodon travancoricus <-- great photos
Please feel free to share your DP photos.
Synonyms: Carinotetraodon Travancoricus
Common Names: Pea Puffer, DP, Malabar Puffer, Pygmy Puffer
Category: Puffer
Family: Tetraodontidae
Origin: the western part of the southern tip of India
Main Ecosystem: Wetlands, rivers, and some lakes in India
Salinity: Pure freshwater
pH: 6.5-7.0
Temperature: 77-83F or 25-28C
Potential size: 1in or 2.5cm
Water Region: Bottom to mid levels of your tank
Tank size: 5 gallons per DP. Although you can keep 1 DP in a 5 gallon tank, I strongly encourage 20 gallons (which can house 4 DP at most), especially a long tank. Almost all puffer experts will advise against tall tanks. The bigger tanks helps dilute all the waste. Nano tanks can crash easily from uneaten food or unexpected rise in waste level.
Temperment/Tank mates: Active little buggers. Very few species are recommended as tank mates due to aggressive and territorial nature. Otocinclus algae eater is a good cleaner for your tank once you get it running for a few months. You can also add in various shrimps. Those are the two winning choices for this puffer. You just need to know that all other species (even to other DP) has a high chance of getting nipped to death or eaten. Slow moving, long-finned fish should not be in the same tank as a DP. Each DP has its own personality. Some may be shy and hides a lot. Other DPs may attack anything on sight. If you ever get a group of DPs, make sure there is only ONE male and all the other DP is a female. Males inside a tank are known to show aggression towards each other.
Diet: Varying daily meals. Feed these puffs some snails once or twice per week to minimize teeth overgrowth. If teeth are not maintained by feeding them hard shelled food once or twice a week, then you will be required to manually cut the DP's teeth yourself. This is extremely difficult because the DP is so tiny to hold and their small teeth is so hard to trim. You can also feed frozen raw shrimp or mussel from the grocery store. From time to time, you can also feed some blood worms and live worms. If you ever decide to feed your DP raw shrimp or anything that looks like a shrimp, then it will increase the chance of your DP eating your favorite red cherry shrimp your tank. It is very easy to overfeed a DP because they are so tiny. They will eat until their stomach explode. Feed enough to make its belly slightly rounded. Its ok to skip a meal once a week. Overfeeding will also shorten their lifespan.
Care: They need fully cycled tanks since puffers are scaleless and are very sensitive to traces of ammonia or nitrite. Owners are required to perform at least 50% water change per week and have strong filtration because puffers are messy eaters and release a lot of waste! Your filter should turn the water 10x the amount of the water volume. So if you have a 20 gallon, you want a filter of at least 200 gph. If your puffer is too small, then think about adding something to the intake of the filter to protect your puffer from getting sucked/stuck to the intake itself. These are very active puffer and territorial, so they need a lot of decor to keep a territory for each DP. Break up each puffers line of sight from each other because they don't want to see each other.
Activity: DPs will eventually recognize their owner and beg for food constantly. When owner is not around, the DP will go back to hunting and protecting their territory. They don't need friends or a tank buddy because 1 puffer will not get lonely. As far as the personalities of the puffer, I've always thought having more puffers will bring out more of their personality. After doing much research, I've been told that having only 1 puffer will bring out the most of its personality. Almost all puffers are territorial, so they don't like tank mates.
Lifespan: Approximately 4-5 years in captivity
Sexing: Males have a dark line through its underbelly with wrinkles behind the eyes. Females do not have either of these characteristics. Males are darker with slightly yellowish underbelly and brownish back. Females are lighter with whitish underbelly and lighter back (with more distinct black spots).
Acclimation: If you ever decide to get 2-3+ DP, then get all of them at the same time. This will minimize the chances of the established DP bullying the new puff due to territory reasons. If you get a DPs at different times, try rearranging all the decor around so that the new DP has an equal chance of establishing its territory. Remember, I recommend having only 1 male in a group of DPs.
Comments: If you're into puffers, then this is the best starter puffer you could possibly own. Message me if you have questions about care. If you don't like dwarf puffers, then I could recommend you to other species of freshwater and/or brackish water puffers. I would like to add more to this post if you have some useful information. I copied and paste most of the things from my F8 profile thread.
Sources: 100+ hours of reading about puffers online at various puffer websites. I also have 1 dwarf puffer. Dwarf Puffer Carinotetraodon travancoricus <-- great photos
Please feel free to share your DP photos.
so I'm having to get rid of my Corys. They are wicked little fish with loads of character and I love them best fish I have ever kept.
