I want to have these cute lil guys..how many can i have in one 10 or 20 gallon tank? What do they eat? are they easy/mid/hard to take care of?



I saw a member has this fish its so cute!

Not sure about the specifics on keeping puffers as I don't have any.

As for stocking levels you should follow the guideline in the link below

http://fish.orbust.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=6756

from what ive read id say they eat a certain type of snail which also helps keep their beek in check.
cant be kept in a community tank though so you would have to have a species only tank.

In a 10 gallon tank, two or three. I believe the "rule" for dwarf puffers is 3-4 gallons per fish. I'd say five for a 20 gallon tank.

They can be kept in community tanks, but you have to keep them very well fed. I don't recommend them for a community tank, even though I currently have mine in one.

Food. Snails. The "pest" variety are good. Mine have eaten a couple giant mystery snails (apple snails) as well. I also feed them frozen bloodworms. They do not eat flakes. Don't know if its possible to to ween them onto flakes as I haven't tried. Probally not.

dwarf puffers, a freshwater puffer, can be kept in smaller tanks. i've kept two in a 5 gal, wouldn't push that though. 3-4 in a 10 gal will work provided you have plenty of plants and caves so they can set up their territories. dwarf puffers, though only an inch long, can be quite nippy. they should be kept in a species tank. some peopel have successfully kept certain algae eaters with them, but not community fish.

now, the puffer you have pictured there looks more like a Green Spotted Puffer, which a brackish water puffer, and gets 3-6 inches so would need a much bigger tank.

be sure you know what type of puffer it is before you buy one, what type of water it needs (freshwater or brackish water, and if its bw,make sure you know how to go about making the water brackish, and the added expense of the salt....), how big it gets, etc. do you research. puffers are NOT a beginners fish. start reading the pinned topics in teh oddball section. then read through some of the threads. DO YOUR HOMEWORK.

most puffers will only eat moving food or food that is not at the surface. this of course can vary by puffer, but thats a norm. all puffers need snails to help keep their beaks (teeth) in check. you can get these snails for free quite often from your lfs, ask around. not the big apple or mystery snails, no the little nuisance snails that come in with live plants and drive most fishkeepers batty. depending on the puffer type, other food could include live ghost shrimps, live or frozen brine shrimp (thoguh this should not be a constant single food source), live or frozen tubifex worms (keep in mind, live ones can sometime carry nasties adn not always a safe choice, i lost a puffer to a bad batch of worms once), frozen mussell, etc. most puffers won't touch flake or freeze-dried foods. my dwarfs will only eat whats moving, so i have to feed the frozen stuff, thawed, by dumping it over an airstone so it "moves".

ah ok so just put a couple snails in the tank along with feeding it bloodworms..that works for me Thank you so much!

I know that the one i pictured is brackish water i was just showing an example of a puffer. I want to get the dwarf puffers. they are so cute. Do they actually puff up when they are aggrivated?

not really when aggrevated as when stressed out. so hopefully, you'll never actually see it puff... its not something you WANT to see it do..

best of luck with your little puffers. what works well is set upa mini tank to keep the extra snails in so they can multiply. then you don't have to keep goign to the shop to get some. or if youre daring, let them into your other tanks to breed. thats what i do. snails galore.

dwarf puffers are funny little guys. you'lll enjoy them. i have one that likes to charge me every time i come near the tank. hes a whole inch of pure terror

I hope you mean to get dwarf puffers, the puffer pictured is a green spotted puffer which needs brackish water and a large tank

That's right, the little guy in the picture won't be mini for long. I agree puffers are indeed the cutest.

for darf puffers you could get 3 in a ten maybe 5 in a 20. They will only get to be about an inch big

I've read that these little guys can live for ten or more years and get to be six inches long. in which case they will need 30 or more gallons all to themselves. hmm. I just got mine for a ten gallon tank. he's about an inch and a half. Im looking to set up a consistent supply of snails but for now he eats blood worms, a few tropical flakes and baby crickets on the side, yummmm.