Questions about Pea Puffers

[CelestialOrca]

Hello there fellow fish enthusiasts! I had some questions about my pea puffers. So the deal is my sister and I are moving our two recently acquired pea puffers and bumblebee goby into a ten gallon tank, and I had was wondering what the best way to go about their substrate and food would be.

Food: As of now, the puffers and goby are being fed with frozen blood worms and live snails. We have tried putting the small snails in our 49 gallon fish tank to breed so that we don't have to go to the store to get them but they keep disappearing (After doing some research I think the snails were eaten by either our two young cichlids, the three kuhli loaches, or the two yoyo loaches). Anyways, putting the snails in our big tank doesn't seem to be working out. I saw in several places that some people can have self sustaining malaysian trumpet snail populations in their pea puffer tank with sand as substrate, but I wasn't sure how well that would work with us. The problem is that our Dad doesn't want more tanks, so the snails would have to be living in one of the two tanks. I was considering putting them in a small fish breeder, but I don't know how well they would live in there. Any ideas?

Substrate: I heard that the pea puffers prefer sand opposed to gravel, but I don't like the idea of sand clouding the water whenever I clean the tank. My family has never used sand before so I don't really know how it would be cleaned and such. The only reason I would really want sand would be for MTS to be able to breed. Perhaps a very fine gravel would be good?


Oh, we are also planning on adding a couple more puffers and gobies when they are moved to the 10 gallon.

 

[nirbhao]

Hello, fellow pea puffer parent.

Where are these fish right now?
Frozen blood worms, mysis shrimp, and daphnia are all good foods. Live ramshorn, pond, and bladder snails are also great.

Malaysian trumpet snails are not ideal. Their shells are very hard and the puffers could break their teeth.

Breeder boxes and refugiums are great places to breed snails. Your snails might still be in the tank. They are very good at hiding.

If you put them in with the puffers, the puffers will eat them all as quickly as they can find them.

I think puffers are fine with either sand or gravel as long as they can forage. Plants are pretty important to them

Sand won't cloud your water if you do it right. I've used moon sand and pool filter sand, both of which were cloudy for a few hours to days when I first laid the substrate but then stayed down.

No more fish in the 10 gallon. You're fully stocked.

 

[CelestialOrca]

Forgot to mention but the tank's filter/bubbler is the kind that sits on the bottom of the tank. Not sure if sand will mess it up.

 

[Brookster123]

Pool filter sand is ideal, it's clean out of the bag and won't pack like finer sand nor be stirred easily. My I dump baby Mts into my puffer tank as fast as I can catch them, while they won't chomp the shells they will work to extract them and eat them like spaghetti. Tank will need to be heavily planted, they require lots of structure to feel at home and safe.

 

[CelestialOrca]

Will sand clog up or get sucked up into the filter though? We use the kind of bubbler/filter that sits on the bottom of the tank.

 

[CelestialOrca]

oops, accidentally posted twice. >.<

 

[CelestialOrca]

Hello, fellow pea puffer parent.

Where are these fish right now?
Frozen blood worms, mysis shrimp, and daphnia are all good foods. Live ramshorn, pond, and bladder snails are also great.

Malaysian trumpet snails are not ideal. Their shells are very hard and the puffers could break their teeth.

Breeder boxes and refugiums are great places to breed snails. Your snails might still be in the tank. They are very good at hiding.

If you put them in with the puffers, the puffers will eat them all as quickly as they can find them.

I think puffers are fine with either sand or gravel as long as they can forage. Plants are pretty important to them

Sand won't cloud your water if you do it right. I've used moon sand and pool filter sand, both of which were cloudy for a few hours to days when I first laid the substrate but then stayed down.

No more fish in the 10 gallon. You're fully stocked.

They are currently in a 3.5 gallon tank. We are wanting to move them asap. As for trumpet snails breaking their teeth, the pea puffer generally don't eat the shell, they suck the snail out, so the trumpet snails should be okay. We've already fed them MTS and they seem to be just fine thus far.
So putting the snails in a breeder box is okay? That's good to know. ^^

 

[nirbhao]

Will sand clog up or get sucked up into the filter though? We use the kind of bubbler/filter that sits on the bottom of the tank.

Sand doesn't work well with undergravel filters. Good point. There's a lot I like about undergravel filters, but you may want more filtration.

 

[SherLar]

Yoyo loaches are ravenous with snails. A couple yoyos will eradicate a large snail population in a few days.
I'm a new Pea Puffer parent also, but thanks to ongoing advice from Nirbhao, Brookster, and others, my 6 little guys (gals?) are doing great.

 

[abw0004]

I would suggest a bigger tank if you can afford one. PetCo normally runs $1 per gallon sales. Puffers are incredibly intelligent and get bored easily so you want to give them space to explore. 10 gallons may not be enough if you are concerned with their overall health.

 

[nirbhao]

The dollar per gallon sale is going on right now!