Drawf Puffers

[littlegiles]

Hey everyone i am curious about something. I have a 55 gallon take with a 304 fluval canister filter. It is well planted with fake plants. Currently in the tank i have 2 med angels, 2 drawf gourmies, a betta, black neon tetras, and 1 purple emporer tetra born in the tank. I was at the petstore tonight looking at other fish to may be add to the tank. I saw some drawf puffers that I thought were very cute. Could I add any of these to my tank or will they harm the other fish. What do they eat and how much. Thanks
LittleGiles

[jeffro426]

Well if you dont mind chuncks of your other fish missing then go right ahead!! Puffers are some mean little fish from what ive seen, not to sure about the dwarf ones though. A friend of mine has one with some neon tetras and tey do alright cuz there pretty quick...every now and then he will catch one though and its not pretty! I think there better as a species only tank.

[Hans]

i thikn they go good with needle nose gars?

[littlegiles]

Thanks for the info. I used the search engine and found lots of info from previous posts. I think at this time I'm gonna keep the little fellas out of my tank. Seems they have a bad habit of nipping. Gosh, they loooked soooooo cute in the lfs. Hard to believe they have a mean streak. heehee

Thanks again.

[Tim Bo]

Yes, I would also not recommend the little guys in a community tank, even a tank of that size. The angels and betta would especially not be happy with their new tank mates!

[PartyAnimal1UK]

not sure you'd have to check but i'm sure i read somewhere that you can keep the dwarf variety in a tank as small as a 5 gallon. that way you could purchase a nother tank at no cost and still get your puffers. they eat snails the shell helps them keep there beak (teeth) down and they obviulsy the snail is the meal. anyway check it out i let me know as i'd like a puffer. any ideas on temp e.t.c.

[Tim Bo]

Snails, especially MTS's, are a necessity IMHO. This will keep their beaks (or teeth) from growing too much which can eventually kill them. Temp between 23 to 29 and pH lowest at 7.

Dwarf puffers : ( Monotetrus trauancoricus) http://www.pufferfish.co.uk/aquaria/species/pufferfish/types/

General links : http://www.google.nl/search?q=dwarf+puffers&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=nl&lr=

[cdawson]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Tim Bo
[B]Snails, especially MTS's, are a necessity IMHO. This will keep their beaks (or teeth) from growing too much which can eventually kill them. Temp between 23 to 29 and pH lowest at 7.

MTS are a no no for puffers, their shells are too hard and can chip or break the puffers beaks. You should be using ramshorn or pond snails.

littlegiles: I wouldn't keep angels with a betta AND gouramis.
A) they have different water requirements
B) they are ALL fin nippers and will either kill each other or destroy each others fins.
Angels shouldn't be mixed with any fish with long flowing fins, this goes for betta and gourami as well. The betta and gourami and natural enemies in the wild.
If it's not happening now, it will in the future when the fish mature a little more.

[dethjam316]

my father added some angels to a tank with a gourami...the gourami got nipped pretty good...had to move it to another tank. it's something to watch out for, but you never know, it might be okay. just keep your eyes open.

you can keep a couple dwarf puffers in a small tank. i had one in a 3g eclipse. vicious little sucker.

[Must4ng s4lly]

Dwarf Puffers should be in a species olny tank! I had one who nipped everyone in a 60gal. They are NASTY! CUTE but NASTY!

[cdawson]

Yeah, the two I had killed an 8" pacu from harassing it to death.

As for your compatibilty issues, you really need to choose between the angels, betta or gourami.

[Tim Bo]

cdawson, that is new to me. Didn't realize this, though I have been using MTS' for a few years without any visible problems. One factor that might have made the difference for me is that the MTS' I put in the puffer tank are baby size so their shells are not fully hardened.