View Full Version : for a 10 gallon tank... puffers?
hi just wondering what options i could use for a 10G puffer tank.. i read the thread below about dwarf puffers, but was also wondering if green spotted puffers were a choice??
are plants okay in the tanks with these species?
i think puffers would be an interesting choice for my 10G but i really dont know what options / combinations / tank mates / setups are advisable... i've been havign trouble finding information about this on the net...
thanks alot for any advice, it is greatly appreciated..
Word of advice. If you want puffers in the future start breeding those snails right now!!
Green spotted are brackish to marine and get much too large for a 10.
Dwarf puffers are freshwater and stay about 1" standard, so a male and three females with lots of plants with at least some Java Moss would be ideal.
Did you see Ian West's site?
http://www.pufferfish.co.uk/
Ren was the first on the pufferlist to breed the dwarf puffers:
http://www.rr.iij4u.or.jp/~kohda/en-index.htm
HTH
would i need a seperate small tank with an air pump and sponge filter to breed snails for the dwarfs to eat?
would the dwarves eat baby brine shrimp?
what variety of snails do they like that is small enough for them?
how much do these puffers typically cost?
what plants and tank decor to put with them?
thanks again so much
would i need a seperate small tank with an air pump and sponge filter to breed snails for the dwarfs to eat?
that would do it. and they LOVE snails :D
would the dwarves eat baby brine shrimp?
yes, but not all the time as they are not that high in nutritional value. also frozen / live bloodworm, mussels, shrimp etc can be fed. also the 'crunch' of the snails is very important to maintain the puffer's teeth.
what variety of snails do they like that is small enough for them?
1st choice: common pond snails
2nd choice: ramshorn
not MTS. you should feed them when they are roughly the size of the puffer's eye.
how much do these puffers typically cost?
depends where you are i guess, but they are not too expensive (£5 each if that)
what plants and tank decor to put with them?
RTR has answered that - but add some caves / bogwood etc to break up the lines of sight through the tank.
HTH
I find that Ramshorn snails tend to breed fastest for me and when my puffers were still alive they tended to like going after them best. I used an old 1 gallon acrylic tank that I had set up for betta at one point to breed mine. You could probably use any container. I put mine in the window to get some warmth and probably algea growth and a couple times a week I through some veggie in the tank for them to eat. Right now they enjoy celery, but also the lettuce family goes well. And you don't need to sink the veggies first, the snails will come to the surface to eat, and this makes for a good and easy to use snail trap to get them out without needed to plung into the dirty water.
http://www.aaquaria.com/aquasource/snailsforpuffers.shtml
HTH
how much / how often do puffers need to be feed snails?
2 - 3 times a week until their little bellies look plump, but not close to bursting! it can constipate them :(
I've never heard of snails resulting in constipation in puffers, and they have been the the primary diet of all my puffers for almost 40 years (I set my first puffer tank in the mid-60s, that group was fed snails only). Mine get snails daily when young, every other day as they mature (only fed every other day at maturity, every third for the real big guys like Fahakas and T. mbu).
Do you have more information on such constipation?
no - i had read somewhere (http://www.petfish.net/puffer.htm) in the mine of misinformation that is the internet that overfeeding puffers could cause blockages, and i am obviously guilty of perpetuating the myth.
my apologies.
Serious overfeeding, especially of dry foods, can cause problems, that much is true and not an argument. But few things are any wetter than snails, there will be no water absorbtion and swelling after eating, so I don't think there will be any gut problems. Puffers of course do not have any inhibitions about over-eating, so your original description of bulgy belly but not extreme is fine. If the feeding were FD krill to the same bulge, I might be concerned - but I pre-soak krill to avoid that problem.
RTR - thanks for the clarrification. Would frozen bloodworm fit into the same categaory as FD shrimp? I guess not, but the reason I ask is because one of my 2 < 1inch Colomesus asellus recently went off its food for a day or two. It would still attempt to feed, but not in its usual, erm uncontrolled manner!
I then watched it apprently regurgitate a bloodworm (I've never seen a fish throw up before - quite worrying!). Anyway, needless to say I was a little concerned. Later I noticed it had a large lump just before the anus and looked distressed. Before I could decide if I should take any action it - ahem, cleared the blockage after which it was fine. I have seen no reccurence of the problem.
I feed them on small ramshorn snails, frozen bloodworm and live brine shrimp (also other frozen foods but they don't seem as interested in these yet). I feed them with a pipette when possible and can control the amount quite well. They get full in about 1 minute. I assumed I must have overfed it and that was why it got blocked.
Do you know of any other causes of these symptoms?
Ade
Edit: I guess I should say that temp 77F, pH = 7.5, ammonia = 0, nitrite = 0, nitrate > 0 < 10ppm (barely registers on colour chart). I do 15% water changes every 2 - 3 days at present (lots of time on my hands!). They share the tank (15 imperial gallons) with 6 cories and will shortly be moving up the property ladder to a much bigger home. Filtration is UGF with a powerhead (another mistake, but its staying till they get a new home) and a Fluval internal filter loaded with floss.
Sometimes regurgitation of food while eating is a symptom of tooth overgrowth (and C. asellus is the worse IME for overgrowth) and sometimes it is unidentifiable - by me at least. If the fish in question was "backed up" at the time, I would not be concerned(but would note it and watch that fish more closely for a time). Your diet is high in roughage and not dry, so should not in itself cause any problems.
Sometimes newly acquired puffs spit out food just because they have not learned it is food, but that is unlikey here - not new, not new to the foods either. Sometimes newly acquired puffs do that because they are gut-loaded with parasites, but those fish do not usually show plump bellies and do not grow, also unlikely here, as these are not new and normally eat well.
Your setup is not a problem IMHO. For decades most of my puffers were in UG'd tanks, and the BW ones are still, RFUG these days. So long as UG/RFUG are well maintained (low nitrates show that they are), they are not an issue.
I am not big on routine live brine shrimp unless it has been gut-loaded for enrichment before use. This food is great for introducing new puffs to captive diets, as they almost all will eat this, but the food value is quite low. I would suggest introducing some other shellfish-based food into the diet and weaning live brine down to a treat food - they do obviously enjoy the chase, or mine do. That makes it worth keeping in use, but IMHO it does little for nutrition. But the bloodworms and snails are excellent.
HTH
i'm trying to kick the brine shrimp habit:)
down to 2 days a week. i load them with vitazin from waterlife as i had heard that they were not the most nutritious things. i need to step up my snail breeding somewhat to keep pace i think!
thanks for the info.
what should my 10G setup for dwarf puffers include? as in which fish and plants, substrate, etc...
have a look at this link (http://www.rr.iij4u.or.jp/~kohda/en/en-dwarfpuffer.htm) for a great page on dwarf puffers including some tank specs / setups. also follow the link to Ian West's site.
albert einstein
08-07-2003, 4:39 AM
Just to share some experences i have had with dwarf puffers.. Be aware that somehow these puffers have a high mortality rate as it can be quite difficult to feed when introduced into your tank. Since many of these are being sold while juveniles, it is common for most tank owners to find it difficult to get them to eat... You may run in to this problem.. My advice before buying food for your puffer is ask your LFS what they feed them.. If they say flake (as one petsmart employee suggested they did.. Perhaps she was new to the job??) disregard his/her comment and ask someone else :p