30 gallon puffer?

[isaac newton]

Planing to buy 6 green spotted puffer (brakish) and 3 figure 8's.. My tank big enough???? by the way, how do u tell the difference between males and females for both figure 8's and green spotted puffer?

[MonoSebaelover]

Only if you want to start World War 3! 9 puffers in a 30 gallon is WAY too much. I would do a pair of green spots in a 30. Puffers are EXTREMELY nasty to one another especially in confined spaces such as aquariums. In the wild the sub-ordinate individual would simply swim away, but there is no such luck in the compounds of an aquarium and the puffer usually ends up dying unless there is human intervention. Remember GSP get 6 inches a piece and Figs about 4 inches themselves. As far as I know there is no physical way of telling male vs female. Hope this helps.

[cdawson]

Originally posted by isaac newton
Planing to buy 6 green spotted puffer (brakish) and 3 figure 8's.. My tank big enough???? by the way, how do u tell the difference between males and females for both figure 8's and green spotted puffer?

DUDE!!!! I've got a figure 8 and a Green spotted puffer in a 55 gallon and THAT'S barely enough.

[rjl420]

Originally posted by isaac newton in the other puffer thread, just moved it here to keep on topic
hmmmm ok... Is there any species i can care for in a 30 gallon tank.. (EXCULDING THE DWARF PUFFER.. SEEN EM IN PETSMART. TO SMALL). Concluding from the size they get to be.. Im aiming toward 4 figure 8's (with planted tank)... In conclusion to you statements, it seems the green spotted puffer is a bit to big and agressive.

well, there is one other possability, the SA puffer (Colomesus asellus) isn't very aggressive, gets a little bit bigger than dwarfs and still stay smaller than fig8's, plus they are FW. I still don't think you could (read:should) keep more than 2 in the tank, but maybe 1m 2f would work in a 30 gallon planted tank.

it seems you are trying to stick to that 1" of fish per gallon of water rule, and that just doesn't apply towards fish like puffers.

[cdawson]

actually now that you mention it I've got a 2 inch SA puffer in my amazonian tank planted right now and he's doing great.

[VoodooChild]

I had two figure 8's in a 20H and that was hell. Actually they'd sometimes work together. I'd rearrange something in the tank and one would come popping out circling my hand. While I was keeping on eye on that one the other would come up behind my arm and bite it! Like raptors. Clever girl....

[ChilDawg]

The problem with the idea of keeping 1m 2f is that I don't believe there is obvious dimorphism between the sexes of the S/A Puffer, so I really don't see keeping more than one of those in a 30g.

[isaac newton]

Hmmm.. Well it seems that i only have 2 choices.. Ill go with the dwarf puffer... In a 30 gallon setup planted, what is the ideal number i should have in the tank??? What seems to be their adult size (i.e about the size of a neon?)? How many dwarf puffers per gallon?? If the puffer gets about to be the size of a neon, ill go with em.. They just seem so small when being sold..


P.S. Also is it possable to mix these with neons guppies and crabs?

[cdawson]

Originally posted by isaac newton


P.S. Also is it possable to mix these with neons guppies and crabs?

"hey look at that neon....HEY ! look at that crab!" SNAP!!!
"hey look at that crab eating the neon!"
nuff said.

You could get lucky though neons are pretty quick. The guppies...well guppies are guppies no brain all stomach. They'd go quickly.

[VoodooChild]

The crabs actually would be useful in that most puffers need to keep their beak trimmed. But there's too many dangers with crabs. Try and mooch some snails off of someone. I can guarantee some aquarist you know is having an infestation right now.

[cdawson]

the crabs would be useful to the puffers, you're right. However they'd still eat the other fish.

[isaac newton]

So what your saying is that the dwarf puffer would nip the crab to death? By the way, the crabs i have are red clawed crabs.. 1 male 2 femail

[ChilDawg]

It is most likely that your dwarf would do some damage to crabs, but you have to take into account the fact that crabs might reciprocate. This could cause tetraodotoxins to be released in the tank, at which point you would have to do a large water change (possibly even break down the tank and clean it) and probably say good-bye to the remaining fish/animals in the tank.

[cdawson]

Originally posted by ChilDawg
It is most likely that your dwarf would do some damage to crabs, but you have to take into account the fact that crabs might reciprocate. This could cause tetraodotoxins to be released in the tank, at which point you would have to do a large water change (possibly even break down the tank and clean it) and probably say good-bye to the remaining fish/animals in the tank.

dude it's the most powerful neurotoxin the world, I wouldn't even clean it. TOSS IT OUT !!! =)
Although I'm not to sure dwarf puffers have it, I think only a few have it, but I could be wrong. I've just never read anything on dwarfs having tetradotoxin in their system.

[OrionGirl]

I've had 4 of them perish (juveniles, they weren't eating) and had not problems with the tank. I removed the bodies by hand, and didn't even get dizzy.

All puffers have the toxin, but not all of them release it on death, unless there is serious damage to the corpse. I don't think fish would eat the body, but a crab might. I wouldn't mix crabs and any kind of fish.

[Pufferpunk]

At the large aquarium downtown, there are schools of SA puffers 30 large. I have 3 of them housed w/6 dwarf puffers in a 29gal.