# New Pea Puffer Nano Advice Needed



## Diana (Jan 14, 2010)

I would start with a 10 gallon, 1M + 2F and no other livestock. Perhaps an Oto, they can hide pretty well. They may eat shrimp. 
Plenty of places to explore- plants, driftwood, rocks... They are not much for open cruising, but are very curious and always poking into things. The more places you give them to check out the more active they are.

http://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/ug.php/v/PufferPedia/Freshwater/C_Travancoricus/


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## Squrl888 (Oct 3, 2014)

Puffers are great fish, but I would try to give them more space than you think they need. I think Diana's suggestion is pretty good. If you can go even bigger than 10 gallons that will be even better too.

Edit- Given a 15 gallon or 20 gallon tank you could even try breeding them!


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## farebox65 (Jun 20, 2014)

I have one pea puffer in an ADA mini L tank with cherry red shrimp, and 10 Boraras brigittae " Chili Rasbora". All get along good, the pea puffer solved the snail problem real quick....


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## SunkShip (Oct 29, 2004)

I would try for at least 10+ gallon tank. Cover filter intakes and also make sure the water flow is slow.

Puffers can also be finicky, messy eaters. They are not exactly low maintenance because they need a variety of foods (e.g., blood worms, snails, etc.) and also frequent water changes because the tank will have lots of excess food!

Good luck!


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## Squrl888 (Oct 3, 2014)

Yeah, SunkShip brings up a good point. It can be hard to feed Pea Puffers. It would be best to culture your own foods. Either live worms (white worms or grindal worms will probably work) or you could culture your own snails (you could just throw a bunch of snails in a bucket and feed them and you might have enough to satiate the puffer's voracious appetite for snails).

Speaking of...here's a funny and great video showing these guys eating snails!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6o1fw9jtRNc

And here they are eating worms. I love the music :hihi:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfMjxP3OORc
Blackworms will also work, you usually buy them at the LFS. My LFS feeds their pea puffers glassworms and they sell glassworms as well. Glassworms are more like mosquito larvae than other worms mentioned in this thread.


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## leemacnyc (Dec 28, 2005)

Kept/bred dwarf puffers for years in a 10g...They are curious little fish, though when they mature they can be somewhat reclusive. I'd recommend some type of moss in the tank. They enjoyed searching for food in the moss & would breed in it as well. 

I fed various foods, but their staple was blackworms. A culture stays fine in the fridge (tupperware) for months, just make sure and rinse it out every day or two.

There is an excellent dwarfpuffer forum (dwarfpuffer.com) if you haven't stumbled across yet, you should check out.


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## loach guy (Jun 2, 2014)

Thank you all for your help. I understand that they take more work than your typical freshwater fish. I am hoping to feed our puffers frozen blood worms and brine shrimp. As well as tossing in some snails from my existing tanks.

I guess in my perfect little ridiculous world, I was hoping someone would come on here and say "you should buy such and such nano setup because the flow is great for puffers, the light is good for medium light plants, and there are no reliability issues" haha.

I have read that pea puffers typically do not go after large snails. Is that really the case?


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## Verivus (Jan 6, 2015)

They prefer smaller snails. Last I saw, I did have some larger snails alive in my puffer tank. Don't know how successful you're going to be with frozen food. My puffers only get live bloodworms and a variety of snails.

I'd also recommend no smaller than 10 gallons for 3 puffers. Nitrates are crazy in my puffer tank even though it's stuffed full of plants right now. All my other tanks are <5 ppm nitrates except the puffer tank. It's driving me a little crazy.


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