Buying some dwarf puffers

[Stryker]

Hi there,

I've read up all I can, just want to make sure I'm not missing anything.

I have a 70L tank that is fully established, and has fish in it. (fish will be moved to another tank before puffers arrive).

*Its fitted with a fluval 303 filter

*Soon to have a heater added to bring water up to 79F

*It is a gravel substrate but I plan to remove half the gravel and replace with sand, so its a sand/gravel mix.

*Its well planted.

Food wise I think I need to get: snails (funny noone ever mentions which type), frozen blood worm and brine shrimp. Anything else they can eat? will they eat flake food too?

I was thinking of having 2 males and 4 females in there. Or would 1 male 3 females be better for that size tank? At 6 puffers thats only 2.5 UK gallons per fish, although its 3 US gallons which I imagine is what people refer to when talking stocking guides.

Many thanks for your thoughts experienced puffer keepers.

 

[diVer]

Sounds good, any snail will do but watch out for Malaysian Trumpet Snails, their shells are too hard for the puffers teeth (mine pull the snail out of the shell anyway so I don't worry about it). They won't eat flake food.

 

[Stryker]

Ah right, many thanks.

 

[bulldog188]

any other shell fish will be great too.. mussels, cockles, winkles, shrimp, prawns all with shells of course.. even things like earth worms [washed] will be eaten.

 

[Stryker]

I've got my LFS looking up their availability and cost with their suppliers at this time. Told I should have an answer by tuesday.

I've also been told hollybush on J11 M6 sell them, but I'm not sure on how well Hollybush keep their tropical fish, I've only ever bought coldwater fish from there.

hhhmmmm

 

[LiquidLife]

Our dwarf puffers also eat white worms, grindals, live daphnia, green shrimp, bumblebee shrimp, grammarus (scuds), California blackworms, live bloodworms (probably would eat live mosquito larvae but we don't have (or want) any). Ours won't eat anything non-living (not even frozen worms)--but other people have told us their dwarfs do. Don't rely heavily on adult brine shrimp--dwarfs have such small stomachs that you have to give them foods that's higher in protein then adult brine shrimps are. Our dwarfs spend a lot of time scanning all the rocks and java moss and gravel, so I would assume anything moving would be at least pecked at to test for edibility. If you can get smallish pond snails or ramshorns, those are good (and interesting to watch the puffs stake-out and decide how to attack a snail).

 

[Stryker]

any other shell fish will be great too.. mussels, cockles, winkles, shrimp, prawns all with shells of course.. even things like earth worms [washed] will be eaten.

One thought that occures to me. You see all of these foods at the supermarket. I assume tho the above have to have been nowhere near saltwater? IE I think you buy cockles in brine in a jar, would they be suitable?

Also can these foods be frozen so I could keep say a months worth of various foods.

ALSO, many thanks LiquidLife for that rather extensive food list.

 

[bulldog188]

no I actually collect live mussels from the beach but clean and boil them up just in case.. give him live winkles etc no problem.

 

[Opcn]

Those food items sound a bit big for a dwarf puffer like zebra mussles mabey?

 

[Jimmy927]

the puffers will eat flake they love the stuff well mine do enyway you will not have to take out your other fish as the puffers are not agressive to the other fish they will eat eny food


hope this does help as i am a specialist on most fish and i know as much as there is about dwarf puffer fish.

james

 

[bulldog188]

dwarf puffers 'are' aggressive fish and will fin nip.. they are not so bad as juvenilles but as they age their aggressiveness will certainly increase.

 

[jread]

the puffers will eat flake they love the stuff well mine do enyway you will not have to take out your other fish as the puffers are not agressive to the other fish they will eat eny food

No.

i know as much as there is about dwarf puffer fish.

james

No, again.

Not trying to be rude, but telling someone that dwarf puffers will eat flakes and any other food, and are not aggressive to their tankmates, is very, very bad advice. I suggest you click on my "www" button and do some more research.

Petsmart always tells people these same things, then you see countless posts from people wondering why all their fish's fins are missing and the DP's ignore the flakes. Also, even if they do eat flakes (as you say yours do) they are not a good staple diet for DP's as they lack the proper nutritional value.

 

[Stryker]

Also one bit of advice to anyone reading this thinking of buying DPs, then get pics of DPs and juvenile green spotted puffers and learn to tell the DIFFERENCE!

seems all too many fish shops sell juvenile GSPs as dwarf puffers. to a newbie like me or a LFS staff member with no experience they look almost the same.

 

[Lithril]

the puffers will eat flake they love the stuff well mine do enyway you will not have to take out your other fish as the puffers are not agressive to the other fish they will eat eny food


hope this does help as i am a specialist on most fish and i know as much as there is about dwarf puffer fish.

james

Sorry I've been a bit absent on here lately, just read this and I'm sorry but I've gotta disagree with it... totally.

Yes some people have had luck getting dwarfs to eat flake food, but they're definately not going to be happy on it, for starters its not varied enough. Also if you fed them only flake they would end up with digestion problems, their beak would also grow to the point where they were no longer able to eat.

When young dwarfs can often be kept in community tanks, but they get a lot more grumpy with age and considering the strength they have in their mouth they can do a LOT of damage, dwarfs have been known to take down larger cichlids to give you some sort of idea!!!

 

[Jimmy927]

sorry about the problem as mine is ok with my community tank (check my sig)
mine eats whatever it can get its hands on but it must be eating snails as it is ok with digestion.
he does not nip eny fish.

i must have got a puffer that is ok with enything.


James