Pea Puffer/Dwarf Puffer

Sure! 2 in a 15 should be ok. Try to get a male and a female. As I understand, males will have a dark stripe running horizontally between the eyes. Make sure you have plenty of cover(plants, caves etc.) as they can get agressive as they mature. While many folks advocate a species only tank(this is probably the saffest course) you can try some ottos for algae controll, or some smallish fish like neons or danios. In my experience here, I have been told these other fish may out compete the dwarves for food. So proper care must be exercised if not doing the species only thing.

If you wanted you could fit five in a 15, but I would recommend 4 or 3. I would get more than 2 so the males attention would be divided. You probably know this since you did your research, but make sure the tank is heavily planted, to break their line of sight, cutting down on aggresion. I cant stress this enough! Also, i hope you knwo what your getting yourself into feeding wise, because most dp's(dwarf puffers) will only eat frozen bloodworms. RARELY, i mean very rarely they eat flake, and that is not a suitible diet anyway. Anyway, they re VERY enjoyable fish with so much personality. They coem to teh front of the tank when you walk into teh room, curling their tails behind them.

Also, tellignj between male and females. Males have a black line running down their side, and can fade the line on thier bellies. It is easier thought to look at the "wrinkles" behind their eyes. Females are generally mroe plump and haevb spots all ovver their body.

Avoid puffers with lumpy or sunken in stomachs.

Have so much fun with your puffers and sorry for my ranting. :rant: :duh:

Oh yah, last thing, visit dwarfpuffers.com, its the best website ever for info.

Pufferpeep

I dont want to drag down the puffers but I saw them too loved the ones I saw, the LFS was indeed kind enough to tell me they are a non community tank type fish, they are pretty but I wouldnt want the extra hassle

Even though dwarf puffers are FW, we keep the puffer threads in the Brackish forum.

I like puffers. Teh dwarves are probably the lowest maintenance of the FW varieties, but still don't belong in a community setup. You'll be happier with them solo--while some will leave tankmates alone, many will not. I had a group that was fine in with some cories for about 6 months, and then within a week all the cories had shredded fins. Mine never went after my kuhli loaches or bristlenose, but anything that stands out or spends time within the water column is likely going to be harrassed at some time.

A male with two or three females sounds fine. You could test out some otos/ghost shrimp and see how they do but be prepared to move them if they get the rough treatment. My ghost shrimp are more dominant than my dwarf puffers but that seems to be against the usual pattern.

A 15g would also make a nice home for a single figure 8 puffer if you're prepared to go brackish. Very nice fish with lots of personality.

sumthin fishy said:

Sure! 2 in a 15 should be ok. Try to get a male and a female. As I understand, males will have a dark stripe running horizontally between the eyes. Make sure you have plenty of cover(plants, caves etc.) as they can get agressive as they mature. While many folks advocate a species only tank(this is probably the saffest course) you can try some ottos for algae controll, or some smallish fish like neons or danios. In my experience here, I have been told these other fish may out compete the dwarves for food. So proper care must be exercised if not doing the species only thing.

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Actually the stripe will be running vertically down the underside of the belly. Wrinkles around the eyes will also be present....however when they are younger both these things may be difficult to see....something to look for also is that males are usually much paler than females. The females will have darker spots on their body and these 2 traits can be easily seen even in younger puffers.