Could I put a dwarf puffer in this tank?

J

JennLy

AC Members
Mar 1, 2009
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Antelope Valley CA
I have a heavily planted 55 gallon tank set up with a few pieces of driftwood and places to hide.. Currently it has five platies and six peppered cories. The plan was to get a school of tetras in a bit and a couple of rams. However my husband saw a pufferfish the last time we were out shopping and he loves them. It was a salt water one so we couldn't get it, but I was reading about puffers on www.thepufferforum.com and it said that the dwarf puffer was fresh water and one of the least aggressive puffers. I do know they have special diets and I can deal with that.

Would that work in tank instead of the rams and the tetras?
If yes, are they hard to find? I don't remember seeing any in the last few fish stores we went to. Wal Mart had some green ones but I think they are brackish water.

Thanks very much for the help guys
 
The Dwarf puffer is usually kept in a species only tank.
I did keep two (male & female) in a 16 gallon heavy planted tank with 3 sunset gouramis.
They did OK, but the dwarf puffer is very aggressive.
I wish stores like Wally world wouldn’t sell fish like those green puffers.
They get very large, and most shoppers at WM aren’t that fish savvy (neither are the clerks).

If you decide to try them, I’d get only two in at least a 10 gallon heavily planted and be prepared to feed them a LOT of pond snails. I was able to get them to eat frozen blood worms occasionally.

They are very intelligent and charming to watch.

You need to worry about the other fish in the tank. DP’s can or will tear them up no matter how big the fish is. I lucked out with the gouramis.
They also have very sharp teeth. Another reason to feed snails, so they can keep their teeth ground down.

Charles
 
Thanks very much for the information, I will probably pass on them for awhile then, I think one tank is our limit :) But I love the idea of doing a small species tank in the future
 
I have been thinking of selling or giving away the fish i have in my 30 gallon tank and getting some puffers.
 
Are they hard to get
 
i thought puffers needed at least 30g of water each... they do get to be a nice size and are aggressive.

i wouldnt put a puffer in a 10g tank... not nearly enough room at all.
 
tigerbarb88 said:
i thought puffers needed at least 30g of water each... they do get to be a nice size and are aggressive.

i wouldnt put a puffer in a 10g tank... not nearly enough room at all.
Click to expand...

Dwarf puffs are tiny. There are also slightly larger FW puffers, like figure 8 puffers. They do require some salt, and would be better described as brackish rather than freshwater.
Here is a great site with tons of info on dwarf puffers.
http://www.dwarfpuffers.com/
 
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