# experience with dwarf puffers?



## shane3fan (Nov 2, 2009)

Anyone with experience in keeping dwarf puffers care to give me their thoughts before I put some in a tank? Im considering some for a 12g long tank----thoughts? My concerns are mainly centered around their feeding needs-Im not sure I can raise enough snails to keep them healthy. 

I honestly have a love hate relationship with this 12g tank. I cant decide what to put in it. I love the looks of it, but it is too long for the height and is hard to get enough circulation without making it a whirlpool. Its so short that its easy to get too much light--I have T5NO on it now, and its too much light. Anyway, Im thinking a dwarf puffer tank or a shell dweller cichlid tank at this point and need to do research on both. 

Thanks in advance.


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## psalm18.2 (Oct 16, 2010)

I suggest the shelldwellers. Pea puffs are really a single species fish.


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## ThinkTank (May 24, 2011)

I have 2 in a 10g. Only had them for a month or 2. I feed them live blackworms and rarely (only twice) a small snail i find in my other tanks. They only eat 1 or 2 worms at a time so I put a big pinch in the tank every 3-4 days. They burrow into the sand but poke they're heads out now and then and get snatched up by the puffers. They last at least a week in the fridge - always go bad before i can use them all. My LFS sells a little cup of worms for 1.50. 

I tried feeding them frozen bloodworms but they had no interest. After 2-3 days I got the live food and have been using that since.


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## frinkles (Jun 23, 2011)

Hi, I m new here, but could not help but replying to your thread. 
The Pea Puffs are adoreable & funny little fish. The blue eyes and puppy faces make you love em. Actually there is a forum for Pea Puffers.
I kept them for a few years and surely will again. I let a "needy" child LOL , have my little tank with the puffs
I fed bloodworms mostly, some black worms....I was a begger (and it worked LOL) for the snails. Most stores love you taking them off their hands,as most folks think of them as a bother...personally I like snails.
As for keeping them with other fish....NO.
Hope this helps.

Frinkles


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## Lil' Swimz$ (Jul 24, 2010)

Dwarf puffers are fun.  They each have their own personalities. You will have to make sure that you can properly sex them, your tank would be good for a pair, maybe 1 male to 2 females. (males will fight to death sometimes if they are kept in too small of a tank and without atleast 3 females for each)

Bah with shelldwellers, they'd dig up your plants.


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## ThinkTank (May 24, 2011)

They are really cute. I have a male and a ?IDK? If its another male, i'll probably get a divider and see if I can find some girls.

Why not get a divider and do a pair of pea puffers and shelldwellers for the other side.?


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## zoea (May 6, 2011)

All puffer fish have "squirrel teeth" that constantly grow if they aren't grinded down they will continue to grow until they are so long they can't eat. There are 2 ways to stop this: 1 feed them snails. the shells grind the teeth down. 2. They can be quarantined in a mixture of clove oil and water to temporarily sedate them so you can trim the beak(teeth) with scissors. I think the first one is much more humane. good luck


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## Shinosuke (May 20, 2004)

I keep a pea puffer in my 29g planted community tank. I started out with 2 (male and female but that wasn't by design) but the female ended up killing the male. Nothing in there is particularly slow or long finned so it works out just fine. I had a healthy stock of malaysian trumpet snails in there before, but now the puffer keeps it pretty thin. She never quite gets all of them since they spend so much time in the substrate. I feed flake / small pellet every day, every couple of weeks I feed live or frozen worms, and the puffer does just fine. I don't see as many baby livebearers as I used to but maybe that's just a coincidence?
HTH!


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## shane3fan (Nov 2, 2009)

zoea said:


> All puffer fish have "squirrel teeth" that constantly grow if they aren't grinded down they will continue to grow until they are so long they can't eat. There are 2 ways to stop this: 1 feed them snails. the shells grind the teeth down. 2. They can be quarantined in a mixture of clove oil and water to temporarily sedate them so you can trim the beak(teeth) with scissors. I think the first one is much more humane. good luck


 
I had always heard that as well, but the more research I do the more I find that to not be the case with the dwarf puffers.


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## Bettatail (Feb 12, 2009)

They are peaceful community fish-in a 168G planted tank, and feeding on baby RCS, live black worm, (and snail, long gone).
Just make sure they have enough place to hide, and plenty of food, or they will become aggresive towards each other.


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## MissCoryCat (Jul 5, 2011)

The dwarf puffers do not have the same continuously growing teeth that their larger cousins do and it is not necessary to always have snails in the tank to control their teeth growth (though they would of course always be a welcomed snack!)


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## Lukkyseven (Jan 11, 2011)

Are dwarf puffers okay to have single in a community tank? Or are these something that need to be paired?


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## sevenyearnight (May 1, 2011)

Dwarf puffers are not community fish generally. Species only, maybe some oto cats.


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## shane3fan (Nov 2, 2009)

I picked up 3 of them yesterday at my LFS and put them in my 12" cube tank instead of the 12 long. I got one male and two females. We shall see how it goes and maybe rehome one of the girls. If Im not mistaken they were already doing some mating behaviours last night--no agression, just rubbing and hovering near each other all the time. Might have gotten lucky and gotten a pair. I dont really want any breeding, just a happy tank. Im gonna put an Amano shrimp and some pond snails in the tank and hope for the best.


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## gtu2004 (Feb 17, 2010)

zoea said:


> All puffer fish have "squirrel teeth" that constantly grow if they aren't grinded down they will continue to grow until they are so long they can't eat. There are 2 ways to stop this: 1 feed them snails. the shells grind the teeth down. 2. They can be quarantined in a mixture of clove oil and water to temporarily sedate them so you can trim the beak(teeth) with scissors. I think the first one is much more humane. good luck


Incorrect. Dwarf puffers do not need to grind their teeth down.

All these information about all dwarf puffers being aggressive, needing snails to live, and requiring brackish water is ALL WRONG. 

Internet is a good thing, but it's only good when people don't post incorrect information.


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## Pookie Bear (Sep 2, 2010)

I have 3 dwarf puffers in my 40 breeder. I've had them for a while now and there aren't many snails left in my tank, if any. I'm not sure what they are eating (I feed my fish with flake food and sinking wafers) but they are definitely eating something because they are all still alive and healthy lol. I keep them in a tank with GBRs, Ottos, and Tetras and I have never had a problem with them going after any of my other fish.


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## astrosag (Sep 3, 2010)

Generally speaking, DPs are aggressive by nature. Does that mean all of them will be aggressive - absolutely not. I kept two in my 20G. One started nipping other fish and was immediately re-homed. The other fit in perfectly with my community fish.

You won't need to worry about their teeth being grinded. I didn't feed my DP any snails and he was perfectly content with the blood worms.

Getting more than 1 can be tricky. If you get 2 or more, make sure the tank is densely planted to avoid line of sight..these suckers in small numbers will be aggressive towards each other. Keeping more than 1 also significantly raises the likelihood of aggressive behavior towards other fish.

DPs are amazing fish with strong personalities. I personally love the guys.


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## Chaoslord (Feb 12, 2011)

I have 2 dwarf puffers in a 29g planted. I feed them bloodworms once a week. They do not have teeth,but will eat snails by sucking them out of their shell. They can be aggressive towards their own kind and other species. I don't see mine being aggressive towards my other fish or shrimp. Maybe lucky picks I also believe I picked a male and a female. Male will develope wrinkles behind their eyes and a black line on their belly. Females are rounder with very small black spots all over.


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## shane3fan (Nov 2, 2009)

I saw my first signs of agression last night. I fed them for the first time and they were bickering over the blood worms. Hopefully that goes away or remains minimal. Im certain that I have 1m:2f


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## msjinkzd (May 12, 2007)

Shane, keep a close eye on their body condition. Its very very common for them to come in with intestinal parasites. If you notice them slimming down at all, I would recommend mixing some metronidazole in with your bloodworms (the extra can be refrigerated for treatment). They also really enjoy frozen daphnia as well.

I really like the little buggers. If you are noticing a lot of aggression, try adding some taller decor to break up their field of vision. Tall anubias work really well. This gives the less dominant fish a place to rest and hide instead of always being on the defensive.

I do really think you will enjoy keeping them. They have tons of personality packed into that little speckled body.


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## shane3fan (Nov 2, 2009)

msjinkzd said:


> Shane, keep a close eye on their body condition. Its very very common for them to come in with intestinal parasites. If you notice them slimming down at all, I would recommend mixing some metronidazole in with your bloodworms (the extra can be refrigerated for treatment). They also really enjoy frozen daphnia as well.
> 
> I really like the little buggers. If you are noticing a lot of aggression, try adding some taller decor to break up their field of vision. Tall anubias work really well. This gives the less dominant fish a place to rest and hide instead of always being on the defensive.
> 
> I do really think you will enjoy keeping them. They have tons of personality packed into that little speckled body.


I will keep an eye on them for sure. I picked up two big bunches of Anacharis and put that in the tank with them for now for extra cover. Narrow leaf java fern is the only other thing in the tank except for driftwood.


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## moonshinetheslacker (Sep 13, 2010)

I have a single dwarf puffer in my 6.6 gallon "bookshelf" aquarium from petco. Within a week, she killed her sibling, but the fighting was VERY obvious. It looked like an aquatic version of WWE! So she was an only fish for a while. Then somehow a female guppy got thrown into my other tank... whoops... so the betta, and the GBR got to have some snacks. I figured I'd throw in three fry with the dwarf puffer, and immediately evacuated the female guppy from the 10 gal. Well, whatayaknow, the girl (Poky) killed her sister, but now LOVES the three (now adult) guppys that I put in her tank. She puffs up during feeding if I cut back to once a week, but if I feed twice a week, she isn't aggressive about feeding time. She doesn't even nip the fins of the guppys.

Keep in mind though, some dwarf puffers are freshwater, and some are freshwater when they are young, and need brackish water when they are adults. (so I've heard) so do some research on what kind of puffer you want. Also, I put about 75 malaysian trumpet snails in the tank for her to snack on. I don't know where some of these guys managed to hide their eggs, but every now and again (a year later) I'll see a little baby snail wiggling around a little bit, before it gets sucked out of it's shell by Poky.

So, yes, depending on the individual fish's personality, they can be kept in a community. I have the three guppys, the DP, three ammano shrimp, an otto, and the random snail in the 6.6, and all are well (aside from the snails) but RCS have never worked out in the tank. They might live for a couple months. But when Poky is hungry, she really likes some RCS.

And the pea puffers don't need their teeth trimmed.

Sorry for the novel, I like to write!


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## astrosag (Sep 3, 2010)

As long as you have a home to re-home them, I would suggest trying out DPs. I would, however, recommend one at a time. I think you're asking for trouble if you get more than 1 without having adequate cover - which most of us don't. 

Here's one thing I learned about most fish but especially DPs. Their personalities change as they become accustomed to the tank. The DP I ended up keeping would ALWAYS get his food stolen from him - right out of his mouth - by my neon tetras and harlequin rasboras. So much so that I had to start leaving blood worms on his makeshift bed in the xmas moss tree I had.

A month later, he would attack anything that got close to his food. If a fish stole it, he'd chase the thing around the tank. Eventually, no one approached his food and I could feed him in open water. It was the only aggression I witnessed from him but I do think I got lucky with a very temperate fish. Most DPs I've seen people have don't fare well in community tanks.

These buggers will build more courage. Just hope its not enough to start nipping and pestering other fish.


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## shane3fan (Nov 2, 2009)

funny that you mention the food stealing deal. Ive seen all 3 of my puffers steal food from one of the others--kinda funny to see. So far so good with the 3 together. They do nip a little and chase a little, but only at or shortly after feeding time from what Ive seen. 1m:2f seems to be working OK so far.


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## kharma (Sep 20, 2010)

The DP's at my store really really enjoy frozen mysis and bloodworms.


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## Chaoslord (Feb 12, 2011)

Yesterday by dps found out they liked shrimp.:eek5:
Only my amanos survived the massacre. Lol. Their so fat know there barley moving. All I needed was 2 more weeks and I was putting them in their permanent home.
Was just waiting to make sure the new tank was cycled.


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## astrosag (Sep 3, 2010)

I'm telling you, DP's have much deeper personalities (deeper or more evolved) than your other fish.

How they behave one day...even a month into being introduced in your tank, can have little bearing on how they behave the next. 

Out of my two, one would get chased over and over again for a good month. That one that got chased, however, once it got comfortable and emboldened, ended up nipping the entire tail off of every single fish I have in there!


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## Chaoslord (Feb 12, 2011)

Well I had to separate them I put the male in the new tank. I hope he survives. The female would not quite chasing him and nipping at him. This started after the shrimp massacre.


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