Tankmates for Dwarfs?

[CGreen]

I recently moved my pair of Dwarf Puffers from a 3g Eclipse to a 12g Eclipse.. Pics can be found here . The little guys are loving their new tank, but I would really like a bit more going on. What could I keep in there with them? I am fairly new to FW puffers, so I'm just learning about ghost shrimp and snails. Are there any guidelines on how many I should put in at a time for them?

What about other fish. I know temperament is different from puffer to puffer, but I think my pair might be alright with the proper fish. What would you recommend? What about other FW puffers such as the larger ones such as the Spotted Congo Puffer? (I'm a newbie, please help )

Chris Green

 

[rjl420]

First off... Welcome.

Originally posted by CGreen
I recently moved my pair of Dwarf Puffers from a 3g Eclipse to a 12g Eclipse.. Pics can be found here . The little guys are loving their new tank, but I would really like a bit more going on. What could I keep in there with them? I am fairly new to FW puffers, so I'm just learning about ghost shrimp and snails. Are there any guidelines on how many I should put in at a time for them?

may I ask if the tank is cycled? puffers don't do to well with the effects of a cycling tank, and I just want to make sure you are aware of that.

I would decorate your tank just a little bit more, maybe a few more plants to break up sightlines and such. decorate the tank with the intention of making it difficult to see across the entire tank lengthwise. this will help with aggression between puffers.

as for snails/shrimp. in an ideal world, what isn't eaten will still be alive and contribute to the balance of the setup (ie eating leftover food, algae clean up etc...) some puffers won't tolerate anything to stay alive with them and kill snails and shrimp jus tfor the sake of doing so. if you can feed several snails/shrimp and still see them inthere 2 days later, your chances are good for being able to keep a supply of shrimp/snail in the tank with them, replenishing what gets eaten from time to time.

Originally posted by CGreen
What about other fish. I know temperament is different from puffer to puffer, but I think my pair might be alright with the proper fish. What would you recommend? What about other FW puffers such as the larger ones such as the Spotted Congo Puffer? (I'm a newbie, please help )

I'd stay away from adding other types of puffers. you could add some more dwarfs but introducing them to each may be problematic since they will see them as intruders. see my thread about introducing dwarf puffers for some suggestions on that route.

sticking with just the 2 dwarf puffs, you do have a little room to work with. something like a small school of tetras (like neons, the ones that stay small) and a small group of cories should work, I have also kept a single dwarf gourami with dwarfs, but keep in mind I'm in the minority on that one so YMMV. a good rule of thumb is to stick with docile fish without long flowing fins.

 

[TKOS]

I mat be wrong but I have read that a few cherry barbs would be okay. They are pretty docile and fast enough to take care of themselves. Of course I have not done this and I just started keeping dwarf puffers so hopefully someone else will be able to say if this is correct.

 

[OrionGirl]

I have my dwarf puffers in my community tank. They are in with blue tetras, cories, plecos, neons, loaches, SAE, rainbows, amano shrimp, and a few miscellaneous fish. They did not do well with my gouramies (they loved tagging those long fins, and 1 of the 4 shredded the betta. Providing lots of cover (plants, even fake ones) will help reduce aggression, but you should monitor any additions closely for at least one full day before trusting them. This is why the betta got shredded--my others were fine with him, then I added 2 new ones, and one of the new ones was naughty. The betta made a full recovery, and is in his own tank now.

I would avoid fish with flowing fins of any type, and your tank is way to small for any of the other FW puffers, some of whom don't have the temperment to share anyway. You could add 5-6 silver tip tetras, same number of pencil fish, or any of the minnow types. Some people have problems with cories, others don't. Try adding fish that are bigger than the puffers--they seem to leave them alone a bit better. Just keep in mind that this is a small tank, and puffers tend to be messy, so have a higher bio-load than comparably sized, tidy fish.

 

[CGreen]

Re: Re: Tankmates for Dwarfs?

Originally posted by rjl420
First off... Welcome.

may I ask if the tank is cycled? puffers don't do to well with the effects of a cycling tank, and I just want to make sure you are aware of that.

I would decorate your tank just a little bit more, maybe a few more plants to break up sightlines and such. decorate the tank with the intention of making it difficult to see across the entire tank lengthwise. this will help with aggression between puffers.

In moving them over to the 12g I had to compromise on that and on the advice of Marineland I dropped the 3g biowheel in the tank to assist with establishing the new biowheel.

As for decoration, in case you missed the final state of it on my photo page, it looks like THIS

Chris Green

 

[CGreen]

Originally posted by OrionGirl
I have my dwarf puffers in my community tank. They are in with blue tetras, cories, plecos, neons, loaches, SAE, rainbows, amano shrimp, and a few miscellaneous fish. They did not do well with my gouramies (they loved tagging those long fins, and 1 of the 4 shredded the betta. Providing lots of cover (plants, even fake ones) will help reduce aggression, but you should monitor any additions closely for at least one full day before trusting them. This is why the betta got shredded--my others were fine with him, then I added 2 new ones, and one of the new ones was naughty. The betta made a full recovery, and is in his own tank now.

I would avoid fish with flowing fins of any type, and your tank is way to small for any of the other FW puffers, some of whom don't have the temperment to share anyway. You could add 5-6 silver tip tetras, same number of pencil fish, or any of the minnow types. Some people have problems with cories, others don't. Try adding fish that are bigger than the puffers--they seem to leave them alone a bit better.

Thanks for the input on these.

Just keep in mind that this is a small tank, and puffers tend to be messy, so have a higher bio-load than comparably sized, tidy fish.

That's totally the reason the 3g came down. I couldn't control Nitrates and had major Algae problems. Perhaps if i had snails and srimp in there I would have been fine, but then the bioload would have been even higher.

I think I'm gonna use my old 3g as a Snail Breeder.

Chris Green