Puffed Up Kicks (10 Gallon Dwarf Puffer Tank)

[attibones]

A few nights ago I was feeling pretty manic so I decided to get another occupant for my empty ten gallon. The filter has been long cycled and was being used as additional filtration for the sorority tank. My first instinct is a new male betta, but I decided, not this time. I love bettas. They are wonderful fish. I will probably get another within the next year, let's just be realistic. However, I wanted something different. I thought about peacock gobies, guppies, several species of tiny tetras or rasboras, a couple of killifish, or maybe some Pygmy corydoras. None of these things seemed to settle with me so I did some research, checked out auctions on aquabid and then found the dwarf puffer. Better yet, I found a pair of puffers. Quickly I pulled up seriously fish, checked the stats for these guys and fell in love. I paid for them Thursday and they should arrive next Thursday. They're being mailed out on Tuesday.

Here is an image of the tank so far. Coming with my fishies are hornwort to float, willow moss to inspire a certain mood, and three nice swords. I'll see which variety I ordered. I can't remember. These plants will help us out in terms of blocking the view of the other as necessary. I want to add another cave, so I'll have to work that out when the plants come.


Oh, the thing in the upper left corner is a homemade filter I fixed up using an old bottle (quite cleaned) and an air pump. I built it for the snail tank originally, but it was too large so I threw it in here. I haven't decided if I'm going to keep it in there or just build up some mesh bags to hold the media in one of the tanks until it is needed.

Also, I threw together a habitat for the food. Dwarf puffers like snails, of course, so I went to my LFS for snail donations. They gave me about twenty which is a good start.

Snail tank



Currently in the puff tank, I've got nine ghost shrimp. We shall see if they also become snacks.

I'm thinking about naming the puffers Frida and Kahlo, but I don't know how these will suit their personalities. Suggestions?

Any help with the scape is appreciated of course!

 

[Puffer_Nat]

I don't have a lot to offer in the way of advice but keep us updated with lots of pictures when they arrive!
 
And yeah I think you're right about the shrimps, unless they're very quick I think they will probably end up as food

 

[attibones]

Oh I will! I'm waiting to hear from the seller to see what he's been feeding them. I've got bloodworms, brine shrimp (both are frozen), and live snails. I can't wait to see them!

 

[Puffer_Nat]

Puffers generally aren't very fussy eaters so I'm sure they'll take all of those readily. My little guy (he's a figure eight) hasn't refused anything I've fed him yet, greedy little thing haha

 

[noobgamers]

Oh I will! I'm waiting to hear from the seller to see what he's been feeding them. I've got bloodworms, brine shrimp (both are frozen), and live snails. I can't wait to see them!

generally ive heard there favourite food is snails i believe that it is one of the reasons they have beaks the other is so larger puffers can eat crustaceans

 

[attibones]

Yes this is true. Most of the snails I've got are small enough for them. I wanted the seller to tell me if they were accustomed to live shrimp as well because I need to know kind of soon I I should be cultivating some live BBS.

In other news, picked up a better light fixture. This is a Marineland LED fixture with day and "night" settings. I also picked up a fake log cave thing in the betta section of the LFS. It will work well. Rearranged some plants (again) and removed a dead shrimp. Pictures of the tank coming up.
Here's the new cave:


Moved a foreground plant (don't remember which it is) closer to the grass and moved the crypt back a bit:


Most of the tank:

I've also got some java fern from the twenty gallon hanging out in there. I'm letting it float while I decide where to anchor it. I'm not sure where I'll tie down the willow moss either.

 

[attibones]

You guys! They ship out today! I'm so excited! Ah! I haven received shipping notification yet, but I'll probably get it within the next hour or so. Now it's time to get dressed and get to class because I'm about to be late~

 

[Ninjouzata]

Tank is looking well, hope the puffs arrive safely!

 

[attibones]

Got a notification about an hour ago that they've sent out! I'm pumped. I'm anticipating they'll get here swiftly and safely. After an oil change, inspection sticker, and air in the tires, I'm going to do a water change in the snail tank, see if I can't clean up the wood in there. It's grape wood and it slimed up pretty badly. Might also take the chainsaw to this branch that fell the other night. If I can cut it right I'll see if it is water safe and if it will fit in the puff tank. It's got some neat knots and stuff.

 

[westonsupermanc]

I have 3 species of puffers but have avoided the dwarfs as they seem to be very good fin nippers and can kill fish much larger than themselves so keep an eye on your swords lol

 

[attibones]

I was talking about amazon swords, ozelot swords, that kind of thing. You know, plants.
They're by themselves.

 

[Puffer_Nat]

Exciting! Hope they arrive safely and can't wait to see pictures!

 

[attibones]

They are a day later than I expected but they are here! The willow moss I ordered was actually out of stock, but I did get a ton of hornwort three healthy swords (I'll pull up the name of this species soon), and two very happy and adorable puffers. I've already sexed them just to be sure I did get a pair. I've got a male who has perked up a great deal since getting out of the box (he and the female are now floating).

Funny story time: on aquabid, I had forgotten to change my address for shipments until after I received notification of my win. Then I went in and changed the address and sent gunpowder an email with my correct address. So the shipment tracker told me today that the package had been delivered, but I couldn't find it. So I checked the shipping address only to find that it was my old address! So, after hastily making it to my old house, talking to the new renters and getting the box, then running for some breakfast because I was hungry, I made it home and started setting up tank. I've got most of the hornwort floating in my ten gallon and twenty, but I've planted a few bunches in both. I've got the puffs floating now and two pictures of each uploading to photobucket.




These are both images of the female as the pictures of the male are not very good.

 

[Ninjouzata]

Yay so glad they arrived safely!!
 
Aha imagine the reaction they would have had if they opened the package Looking forward to more pics once they settle in!

 

[attibones]

Frida:

Kahlo on the left, Frida on the right:

They tend to stick together. Frida is definitely more active that Kahlo. Frida is the female. They're both really funny and cute. I think they already had their first snail, too. I love them!