Dwarf Puffers or no?

[jread]

Hello everyone!

I'm currently working on a 10-gallon freshwater planted tank, and I'm trying to decide what I want to keep in it (besides the plants of course).

I saw some Indian Dwarf Puffers at the LFS yesterday and fell in love with them! Very cute little fish with lots of personality. I've heard that they do well in planted tanks but there are some things to consider:

- They can only be kept with themselves and other fish that they can't nip on.

- They require live food

- I don't know what I'd use for algae control

If I didn't go with the puffers:

- I could have a community tank with various shrimps and fishes

- I'd have a lot more "algae control" options as far as tank mates


If I did go with the puffers what would I use to eat the algae? Are there any algae-eating fish suitable for a planted tank that they're compatible with? Shrimps (which are usually used for this in planted tanks) are out of the question because the puffers would eat them. Also, I go out of town sometimes... usually a week at the longest. There would be no one here to feed them live food. Is there any way around this? Maybe an automated feeding system that I don't know about?

I just want to make sure I've got all my research done before making a decision on what kind of fish to get.

All replies are most appreciated!

[blitzen25bm]

i think a school of tetras will look better in a planted tank.

[SBA]

hi

dwarf puffers will do fine in a 10g planted tank. i guess the aesthetics are a personal thing (tetras may be more 'visual', but not as 'cute').

puffers do require a bit more effort regarding food. they don't need live food as such, but they will probably not take flake food. frozen bloodworms, shrimp, mussel, etc are good choices. crucially you would need a supply of crunchy food to keep their beaks in trim. ideally a supply of live, baby snails but also shrimp, cockles, mussels etc with the shell on will help.

as for algae control, you may find that they ignore shrimp (though unlikely) but other than that its up to you! controlling the nutrients / plants / water and lighting to minimise any algae and cleaning it out when doing water changes seem to be the way to go (unless anyone has any easier methods - i'd love to know them!).

if your fish are otherwise healthy and well fed, they would probably be ok left for a week without food. i haven't found a way of automating feeding with frozen food, but i have left my SA puffers for nearly a week and had no problems.

other that that get a neighbour to come in once midweek and chuck in a cube of frozen bloodworm.

i'd go with the puffers (very entertaining) over just tetras myself, but each to their own.

just to let you know most puffer related threads will get more responses in the brackish forum (even though these puffers are 100% FW) as that is where most of the 'puffer people' post!

HTH
Ade

[OrionGirl]

Moving this to the Brackish/Puffer Forum.

Personally, if you will not be able to feed the puffers daily for at least the first 6 months, I would avoid them. While adults can easily go 2-3 days without food, it is often fatal for juveniles. I have the dwarves in my 40, and so there are lots of snails for them to hunt. While having crunchy foods is not as critical for dwarves as it is for other puffers, snails should still be a staple in their diet. Controlling nutrients is always the best algae control, IMO, but the dwarves will be fine in with a single bristlenose as well as otos.

As for shrimp--you could try some ghost shrimp as a test. My SA's go after shrimp, but the dwarves never even try.

[jread]

Thanks for the replies so far :)

Sorry for putting it in the wrong forum. I put it in freshwater because they're not brackish water fish.

Hmmm... I do have someone who could come feed them mid-week for me if I needed. I don't go out of town for more than a few days very often... maybe a hadful of times per year.

It's nice to hear that they tend to stay away from the shrimp!

[dethjam316]

my former dwarf puffer was BRUTAL to ghost shrimp. he'd go for the eyes first, no matter how big the whole shrimp was, then circle it and just pick at it. gruesome death for the shrimp, i always thought, so i stuck to a diet of mostly brine shrimp, blackworms, and snails. in any event, i would suggest the chances as bad for a successful shrimp/puffer tank based on my experience.

[jread]

I went to one of the LFS's today and they had a whole gang of young, dwarf puffers. Just watching them for 5 minutes convinced me that I have to have them! They just have so much personality! They were just as curious to come up to the glass and check me out as I was to check them out. Another great thing is that they were only $3.00 apiece! The other LFS I saw them at was selling them for $6.99 :eek:

Anyway, I was wanting to get more info from the puffer experts in here:

- For a 10-gallon, how many should I keep? They are so small that it seems as if you could keep quite a few of them, even in a smaller tank.

- Also, what should I keep the temp of the tank at? It runs about 80 degrees during the day and 78 or so at night.

- How often should I feed them? I plan on trying frozen bloodworms and daphnia (this is what the LFS uses), as well as treating them to brine shrimp on occasion. I also need to work on a snail population. Is there any particular type of snail that would be best for the little guys?

I'm going to test my water this weekend and if it's ready for fish, I'm going to go get some. How many should I add at a time? I don't want to be too hasty with the whole process.

Thanks again for all the help so far!

[SBA]

i think you could add 3 -4 in a 10 (but someone else can confirm). i also think (if possible) its better to have 1 male and 2 - 3 females but telling them apart is not easy.

first things first though - is you tank cycled? these fish are not suitable for cycling tanks (i found out to my cost as a total newbie with two F8s).

temp sounds ok, maybe a touch lower.

get the snail tank going now it takes a while for them to breed enough for a staple of snails. common pond snails are considered best but ramshorns will do (not MTS as there shells are a bit too tough).

feed them daily at first (OrionGirl knows her stuff!! - although i personally think not being able to feed them every single day for the first six months won't be too bad for them all other things being equal). when they are a bit older (6 12 months) you can cut back feeding to every other day.

crunchy food should be their staple diet if possible. brine shrimp are a 'treat' as they are not very nutritious.

all JMO.

Ade

[jread]

Thanks, SBA.

I can't wait to get a little group of them in my tank. Cycle should be done by this weekend so hopefully I can go get some :)

[Must4ng s4lly]

I wish I could give ya the dwarf I had! I just gave a large dwarf 1 inch to my LFS. He had been in my tank for a year & was nippin every one! He LOVED bloodworms the most. Brine shrimp were his second fav. you could prob get at least 6 in a ten gallon. you would be fine. BTW, they DO nip cories fins too.....at least my cories....