DP in a community tank?

[Sean_Buckley]

I know a lot of you think that DP's need a species tank, but how do you explain this? LINK: Nature Aquarium
Sean
EDIT: The pictures are in the "My Aquascape" section.

 

[SirMinion]

We kept dwarf puffers in a community tank for a while and it seemed to work.
They shared the tank with tetras, cories, plecs and banjo cats.

Although on the surface it seemed succesfull, with the tetra & cory fins only getting a little nipped, eventually we decided that being constantly chased by the puffers wasn't fair on the other fish and so we moved them.

When considering a setup, it's more important to think about if things should be done rather than if they could be done.

There's my two penneth worth.

 

[andywg]

I have to agree with sir on this one.

Don't think of it so much about whether the fish are actually getting nipped, think more of the stress of being repeatedly chased.

Also, it depends on the puffer. They have widely varying personalities, some people have kept quite impresseive groupings of different puffer species together(is it pufferfreak, who has pufferville?) but they always have a spare tank in case of fallout.

I know that in theory I could keep a few different and varied species with DPs when I set the tank up, but I've decided to go for the usual suspects out of peace of mind for me and the fish.

However, I would never claim to be an expert and there may well be other pairings that work well

 

[Sean_Buckley]

Thanks, by the way, that WAS a Dwarf Puffer, right? Also, I know this may be asked many times per day, but I could keep 2-3 DP's in a 10 gallon (sorry SirMinion, I read your previous post about you being sick of answering these questions, but I figured since it started as an unrelated post, it would be ok.... )
Sean

 

[Erised]

Yes, that is indeed a dwarf puffer
About being able to keep some in a 10 Gallon, you could go for 2, do not push it to 3. However, some dwarfs decide they simply dont want to get along with eachother, so you might want to keep a 5 Gallon empty incase all turns out to go wrong.

Read up on them, what to feed them, how to decorate the enviroment, etc etc and you'll be fine

 

[bunjiweb]

Does anyone know what bottom feeding tank mates would go with DPs?

Possibly some loaches? Or maybe some otos?

Ben

 

[andywg]

If you can find them, the freshwater bumblebee gobies (see my thread on DPs and bumblebee gobies for the latin name) are meant to be good. I believe the Minions have recently obtained some, though they are rather rare.

Other than this common suggestions are Bristlenose plecos and otos.

I have seen other who keep khulies and many things. I'm not sure how they go though. The general advice given is to get something that is pretty much inactive (at least during the day when the puffers are about) to stop the DPs taking too much interest in them.

 

[SirMinion]

Does anyone know what bottom feeding tank mates would go with DPs?

Possibly some loaches? Or maybe some otos?

Ben

Not otos, the puffers would eat them and I'd expect loaches to lose their fins.

I would always recommend bristlenoses with Dwarfs as for some reason the Puffers totally ignore them.

As Andywg said, BBGs are ideal too as again the puffers leave them alone, but they're only suitable if you can find the right (sub?)species. It look us 18 months to find some!

 

[Talleyrand]

I have a 25 US gallon tank with two dwarf puffers, 3 angels, several danios, and a bumble bee gobi. They have lived together since May without incident.

 

[J-Money]

My dps really chase eachother more than anyone else. I've seen them slink away from one of my guppies when the guppy is comin' in for some food around him

 

[a1wonder]

I have a 25 US gallon tank with two dwarf puffers, 3 angels, several danios, and a bumble bee gobi. They have lived together since May without incident.

Sound a bit like your tempting fate with that combination with the long flowing fins of an angel Might be safer to keep a couple of tiger barbs with a betta


I've kept a couple of otos with my DP for a while the important thing is to choose the biggest otos that your store has to offer the only scuffle I've seen is when the oto attempted to sample some of Trogdors blood worms (first and only time I've seen my puffer puff).

 

[Talleyrand]

The DP's and Gobi were in their own 10 gallon tank which my son cracked with a toy car. The only thing to do was to add them to the angel tank. I planned on purchasing another tank ASAP, but its now been 7(?) months without a problem so its ceased being priority.