i joined the DP crew!

Hans

Hans

I will eat your fish.
Oct 24, 2003
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0
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Gieboldehausen, DE
www.brianhanley.com
sup folks I rescued 2 dwarf puffers from petsmart the other day, right now they are in a 2 gallon glass aquarium with lots of slate and plants for them to hide and whatever in. i keep it loaded with snails from petsmart tanks,,

they are so funny to watch hunt, they line up exactly the right angle and then SNAP!

i was wondering a few things

one is like a leopard print, very dark dots, the other is more of like a green and light green cammo colors. are they still both dwarfs? they dont really fight but the cammo one is bigger and chasses the other now and then,

do they suck the snail outta the shell??

they dont seem to eat anything else but the snails, they ignore mysis, color bits, etc
 
They're both dwarfs. It dounds like you got a male and a female.
If the shells are too big, they will just suck the snails out. Your best bet would be to get another small tank and breed the opnd snails yourself. That way, when they get to the right size, you can give them to the puffers. They are very picky eaters. They normally like only live, frozen and snails.
Get some bloodworms, brine shrimp, tubifex worms. I've fed mine clams, crab. Just about any seafood that will fit into their mouths.
A great site for you is www.dwarfpuffers.com

Hope that helps!

Kim:cool:
 
Originally posted by Hans
sup folks I rescued 2 dwarf puffers from petsmart the other day, right now they are in a 2 gallon glass aquarium with lots of slate and plants for them to hide and whatever in. i keep it loaded with snails from petsmart tanks,,

they are so funny to watch hunt, they line up exactly the right angle and then SNAP!

i was wondering a few things

one is like a leopard print, very dark dots, the other is more of like a green and light green cammo colors. are they still both dwarfs? they dont really fight but the cammo one is bigger and chasses the other now and then,

do they suck the snail outta the shell??

they dont seem to eat anything else but the snails, they ignore mysis, color bits, etc
Click to expand...


It sounds like you got a great setup there, but that tank size is not ideal at all. First off a 10g should be the min. for dwarfs, they're messy high waste producing fish. Even though they're the smaller cousins of other more larger species they need their space. They also need efficient filtration and alot of room (and broken sightlines) to curb aggression.

I suggest a heavily planted setup in a 10-20g rather than the 2g you're using.

IMHO and experience it's nearly impossible to keep anything as sensitive as a puffer long term in a small tank. Let alone something like a 2g that can't support anything but a betta for more than a couple weeks or months. They need filtration no matter what, which you simply won't be able to provide in a 2g.

Until you can find a much larger tank I suggest keeping up the water changes constantly. Especially if you haven't cycled the tank, puffers are scaleless fish that lack gill covers and will quickly succumb to the high levels of ammonia and nitrite that accompany a nitrate cycle.

I know you're always out there trying to provide your fish with the best setup hans, which is why I took the time to write this. =)
good luck!

BTW I'm suprised it took you this long to get into puffers!
 
well, its a 2 gallon with a 150 GPH aquaclear HOB on it lol, of course its not cranked to full power, i lifted up teh toob so it isnt strong, they are very cute when they look straigt at you wiht both eyes pointed forward hehe

they are just so tiny to put in a big tank, isnt there anything else you can put them with??
 
Originally posted by LittlePuff
A five gallon is OK for 2 dwarfs.
Tank mates: otos,shrimp.

Kim
Click to expand...


Even a 5g isn't ideal, the reason a 5g tank is bad is aggression. Even though it's not shown at all times puffers are very territorial and unpredictable. One second they can be docile and peaceful towards tankmates and the next second they'll harass them until death then going back to being peaceful for awhile.


Hans: 150 GPH is WAY to strong a current for even a 10g, you want ideally 8x your tank's capacity for a current. You have 75x that. Your puffers won't even be able to rest, let alone sleep.
 
I know that, I'm saying it's too much even if you used it on a 10 gallon. That filter is for a 20 gallon tank. It'll create way too current and literally will blow your fish around the tank. Puffers are very clumsy swimmers.
 
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