How Many Dwarf Puffers In 120L ?

[vespabloke27]

hi guys,
 
i was toying with the idea of turning my community tank into a speices only tank,  hence the question.
 
 
how many dwarf puffers would be acceptable in this size tank..?
 
i would put a guess at 3-4 with plent of hiding places.. is this correct?
 
my canister filter has a 9x an hour turnover rate so will be nice and clean
 
thanks in advance
 
jimmy.
 
 

 

[sawickib]

I would say around  15 puffers, but i would go for about 5-10 unless you have a huge snail supply and plenty of decorations.

 

[vespabloke27]

oh wow as many as that?..  
 
that would look so cool.. thanks for your help.

 

[attibones]

You'll want to set up a second tank specifically for snails. It doesn't have to be big, five gallons would work. The tank will need to be well planted and have lots of caves, but you could set up a harem with about ten. 

 

[Goggy]

i personally would not go with fifteen. These are puffers and they can get terrotorial. If you were to get fifteen dwarfs you would need a 2females to 1male ratio, plus the sexual dimorphism is not obvious, so making fem-male ratios are not that easy. I would go with 6, plus you should have lots of hiding places

 

[sawickib]

i personally would not go with fifteen. These are puffers and they can get terrotorial. If you were to get fifteen dwarfs you would need a 2females to 1male ratio, plus the sexual dimorphism is not obvious, so making fem-male ratios are not that easy. I would go with 6, plus you should have lots of hiding places

With sufficient hiding places, there would be enough territory for 15 i would say, but 6 wouldnt be a bad number. 

 

[vespabloke27]

thankyou everyone for your inputs!..
 
so is it best to buy 4 now. and 4 more at a later date, or buy all at the same time?...
 
i already have a seperate tank which houses snails ,endler fry and a betta..
 
so i can just up the snail numbers in that
 
would khuli loaches and bristle nosed plecs be ok for cleanup crew? 
 
thanks.

 

[Goggy]

 

i personally would not go with fifteen. These are puffers and they can get terrotorial. If you were to get fifteen dwarfs you would need a 2females to 1male ratio, plus the sexual dimorphism is not obvious, so making fem-male ratios are not that easy. I would go with 6, plus you should have lots of hiding places

With sufficient hiding places, there would be enough territory for 15 i would say, but 6 wouldnt be a bad number. 
 

Definetly agreed, but  you would need a lot of hiding places,  plus a big food supply of snails and bloodworms. also if the tank goes on a steady diet of bloodworms eventually the puffers teeth would overgrow so you would have to trim 15 puffer teeth (lol 

)

 

[Goggy]

thankyou everyone for your inputs!..
 
so is it best to buy 4 now. and 4 more at a later date, or buy all at the same time?...
 
i already have a seperate tank which houses snails ,endler fry and a betta..
 
so i can just up the snail numbers in that
 
would khuli loaches and bristle nosed plecs be ok for cleanup crew? 
 
thanks.

 no, khulis are way to delecate as the puffers will nip it's fins. The BN pleco's fins also will get nipped.
You SHOULD get all puffers at once (but the option of getting 4 puffers and 4 later is also acceptable but not recommended)
Yes, you could up snail numbers by purchasing more or try to breed snails
 
A little off-topic but, i suggest you move the betta to a different lone tank as they do not like boisterous tankmates like endler gupps.
if your looking for cleaning tankmates i think you could have a school of cories that grow no bigger than 3" plus a small school of hillstream loach

 

[vespabloke27]

So I've managed to rehome my community fish and have started to rescape the tank ready for the puffers

I am aware I need to buy taller plants and I have frogbit growing ready.

 

[Lillefishy]

I would only go with 3-4 in a 120litre, unless you mean 120 gallon long?

 

[simplyfish]

If you built some rock structures (piles) up in the tank with maybe some long pieces of drift wood angled up into the tank, you would create many more hiding spaces for the puffers. I don't think the puffers would be keen floating round in the open areas without cover to dart in to. My experience with shy fish like these is the more hiding places they have, the happier and (ironically) the more you get to see them!

 

[vespabloke27]

If you built some rock structures (piles) up in the tank with maybe some long pieces of drift wood angled up into the tank, you would create many more hiding spaces for the puffers. I don't think the puffers would be keen floating round in the open areas without cover to dart in to. My experience with shy fish like these is the more hiding places they have, the happier and (ironically) the more you get to see them!

Thanks for this advice!! I will do that !. Cheers..

 

[kniesh]

A BN Plec would have no issues at all in that tank. Very unlikely the Puffers would even look twice at a fish that much larger than them. Also you don't need to feed these Snails for their teeth. Puffers don't crunch through the shell, and they are one of the only puffers who's teeth don't overgrow. However, Snails in their diet would be good for them nutrition wise. They bite them an suck them out the shell apparently.
 
sorry, just seen how old this was