MeGustaUnaPez926

I went to the fish store today and saw dwarf puffers for the first time!!! Oh, I'm so excited. They're absolutely adorable. Unfortunately the parents say no new fish tanks, so I guess I'll just have to be perfect until Christmas. Haha. Anyway, my question was, how small is to small to buy? The ones they had looked really healthy, but were maybe half a centimeter long. How fast to they grow? I don't think I could get snails small enough for them to eat, so until they're bigger, I guess I'd have to feed them bloodworms and stuff. Also can they live on snails alone? I've read that its their natural diet. I don't get to big of an allowance, so I can't really afford to buy expensive food forever, but I could start up a snail farm. Thanks in advance!

Lucy

PFP wrote a terrific care guide for puffers.

General Guide to Puffer Care

I hope that helps.

MeGustaUnaPez926

Yeah it did. Thanks for the link!!

pinkfloydpuffer

Get some pond snails and let them breed, you can feed the smaller ones to them. Don't go without snails, They're necessary. For the rest, just get a pack of frozen bloodworms, they'll only be like 3 bucks or so, and if you don't overfeed them then it'll last for months. brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, etc would be good to have as well, but at least have 2 kinds of food.
Any other questions feel free to ask

MeGustaUnaPez926

Thanks. If I were to add otos to a dp tank, would you add them before or after the puffers? (to a fully cycled tank, obviously) I would think so, because then they wouldn't invade the puff's territory. Also, are there any specific plants that dwarf puffers like? I've never had live plants, so it would be nice if they were easy to keep.

pinkfloydpuffer

Before. Always add puffers last.
Both of those fish are sensitive to water parameters, so be sure it's fully cycled.
If I had a 10 g and wanted otos, I'd get a few otos, and one dwarf puffer.
They're not specific about plants. Any will do. I'd go for the lowlight ones, like java moss, java fern, anacharis, etc...

MeGustaUnaPez926

Fun, fun! Thanks so much! If I can talk the mama into a new tank (cross your fingers) I'm sure I'll have more questions. Gracias!

pinkfloydpuffer

No problem! Puffers are my favorite topic to talk about