New Dwarf Puffer Questions

[Laser]

I just got a dwarf puffer today. I was about to walk out of the store when I asked the owner if he ever gets any dwarf puffers and it turned out they had 1 left so I bought it. I relocated the fish in my planted 10g and now the dwarf puffer is all by himself in there.

Now there's plenty of MTS in there for him and I saw him attack one shortly after I let him out into the tank. I have a good selection of frozen foods, but my question is do I have to make sure he eats the food or is he going to go after it on his own? Is there anything else I should do or watch out for? Should I get another puffer or just let him have the tank to himself?

 

[Bettababe1011]

For the first few days I would watch to see if he's eating, but after that he should eat pretty well on his own. As far as another puffer, I'm not quite sure about this specific breed, but I've heard that puffers are normally best kept alone. I'm not quite sure on that though, so someone may want to chime in on that.

 

[Terrance]

Yes they are better off being one in a tank. Most people like 2 in a 10g because they feel the need to fill up the tank, but 1 dp will definitely fill up the whole tank.

if there is any sign of a sunken stomach or your dp becomes skinny or unrounded, treat for internal parasite. This might be difficult to determine since your tank has a large supply of snails. Try not to overfeed them since they can be overweight like us. This can lead to an earlier death.

Also does your dp eat all the snail, or only part of the snail? My dp used to eat only the head and leave the rest of the meat in the shell to rot. I had to take the rest out to prevent bad water quality. Other dp have been reported to eat all the snail meat and leave only the shell.

keep up with the weekly 50% water change. Its not that hard.

 

[Laser]

I found an empty MTS shell that is larger than the puffer this morning. It looks like he ate the whole thing.

 

[bkiggy]

Mine eats only the head and leaves the rest.

I have a syno in with the puffer and they are fine. But only 1 DP to 10 gallons