FW obviously...
I used to have a nice pack of 4 dwarf puffers, well one day I lost all but 1 to an accidental leak that emptied the tank water to my floor. since he is full grown and all the others I've purchased have been relativly young (thus also unable to sex them properly) he seems to bully the others that I get. usually it is just chasing, but every now and then he will take a nasty strike at the other (presumably) males. eventually I find the dwarfs dead (presumably from an attack)I've tried with no success to add more DPs on 3 occasions. usually 3 at a time (total of 4 with the mature male).
so this last time, I purchased 4 dwarf puffers. I put them in my intended tank and removed the mature male and placed him in my snail breeder (it's mostly ramshorns, and I don't mind if he eats all the pond snails he can). I'm trying a strategy used when introducing new dogs/cats to each other. I'm hoping that the new pack will be able to acclimate and feel secure at the same time that the mature male settles into a new tank. it's been about 2 days now, and I was planning on waiting 1 week before placing my mature male in the intended tank with the other dwarfs.
do you think this will work? does it kinda make sense that the mature male will think he's in a new tank (I also redid the decor and added a few more plants, the tank is a little different now than he would remember) when I add him back to the intended tank and thus maybe not be so dominant/aggressive?
does anyone else have any suggestions on getting these guys to get along? I know it would be really easy to just get 4-5 puffers and keep them together and remove my PITA dwarf to another tank, but I'd like him to have some friends.
I used to have a nice pack of 4 dwarf puffers, well one day I lost all but 1 to an accidental leak that emptied the tank water to my floor. since he is full grown and all the others I've purchased have been relativly young (thus also unable to sex them properly) he seems to bully the others that I get. usually it is just chasing, but every now and then he will take a nasty strike at the other (presumably) males. eventually I find the dwarfs dead (presumably from an attack)I've tried with no success to add more DPs on 3 occasions. usually 3 at a time (total of 4 with the mature male).
so this last time, I purchased 4 dwarf puffers. I put them in my intended tank and removed the mature male and placed him in my snail breeder (it's mostly ramshorns, and I don't mind if he eats all the pond snails he can). I'm trying a strategy used when introducing new dogs/cats to each other. I'm hoping that the new pack will be able to acclimate and feel secure at the same time that the mature male settles into a new tank. it's been about 2 days now, and I was planning on waiting 1 week before placing my mature male in the intended tank with the other dwarfs.
do you think this will work? does it kinda make sense that the mature male will think he's in a new tank (I also redid the decor and added a few more plants, the tank is a little different now than he would remember) when I add him back to the intended tank and thus maybe not be so dominant/aggressive?
does anyone else have any suggestions on getting these guys to get along? I know it would be really easy to just get 4-5 puffers and keep them together and remove my PITA dwarf to another tank, but I'd like him to have some friends.
