Clarifying Question
- Thread starter Smitti
- Start date
About 2 inches? 
Seriously though, firefly is right on target. DPs are small little buggers, but they are aggressive and FW. They eat small snails (very small I might add), bloodworms and other small, meaty and crunchy types of food. They need about 3 gallons of space per DP.
Figure 8s prefer light brackish (despite the fact it's often posted on the web that they're FW) in which they'll be healthier and live longer (light BW is 1.005 to 1.008sh specific gravity). They eat larger snails, frozen krill, cut of shell on raw shrimp, bloodworms - a bit easier to feed than DPs. They need about 10 gallons minimum per fish.
Neither puffer is a very good tankmate for most other fish as some are flat out aggressive to others.
Eric
Seriously though, firefly is right on target. DPs are small little buggers, but they are aggressive and FW. They eat small snails (very small I might add), bloodworms and other small, meaty and crunchy types of food. They need about 3 gallons of space per DP.
Figure 8s prefer light brackish (despite the fact it's often posted on the web that they're FW) in which they'll be healthier and live longer (light BW is 1.005 to 1.008sh specific gravity). They eat larger snails, frozen krill, cut of shell on raw shrimp, bloodworms - a bit easier to feed than DPs. They need about 10 gallons minimum per fish.
Neither puffer is a very good tankmate for most other fish as some are flat out aggressive to others.
Eric
We sell Dps in our store. Unfortunately the guppys that live next door are always geting fin nipped because they cross between the barier and wind up on the dp side (and the dps move to the guppy side too). IMO/IME puffers usually need a species specific tank, as they are aggressive and picky. THe dps especialy so, since any fish big enough to stand up to them will munch them right down, and all the others will die of stress from the aggressive little dps. You could do two in a 5g tank, but It would be better to go with 10g and max out at 3. They can be fun to watch, and have little antics. THey don't puff up the way other puffers do, and care must be taken in feeding them because of their size. (i.e. they need small foods). Frozen blood worms and brine shrimp are readily accepted, and they will eat the small pest snails. (even ones that are a little bigger than you'd think they'd deal with, but not full grown ones).
A few people who claim to know their fish insist these guys need a brackish set up and think its' bad we've got them in freshwater. Many people don't believe there are any fw puffers, but the dwarfs are indeed. Others dont believe that a fish so small could be so mean. But, they are!
Emily
A few people who claim to know their fish insist these guys need a brackish set up and think its' bad we've got them in freshwater. Many people don't believe there are any fw puffers, but the dwarfs are indeed. Others dont believe that a fish so small could be so mean. But, they are!
Emily
firefly - you're right on target with DPs being purely freshwater. Some folks don't think any puffer is FW, but there are a bunch (red eyes, Fang's Puffer, South American Puffers, etc.).
Eric
Eric
