penance

Since I upgraded to my 55 gallon aquarium I've been thinking of using my 29 tank as a dwarf puffer only housing. I'm thinking of starting out with 5 dwarf puffers but can someone with any long term dwarf puffer experience tell me if a group of puffers will get along?

Would it also be possible to downgrade my 29 with something just a bit smaller and still keep about 5 dp's?

Thanks

Lucy

Here's a link to start your research until someone who keeps puffers comes along to help.

General Guide to Puffer Care

agabr123

pink should be along soon, but basically if you want to have more than one DP in a tank, then you'll want just one male and the rest females, and a minimum of 5 gallons per puffer to account for aggression and territory

shih-tzu mom

Hi: i have 2-dp's in a 20-gallon and i agree with above poster-i have a male and female and they are little sweethearts lol and can be very aggressive. See thread 'Thumbellina and Thimble' hope this helps somewhat. bella

pinkfloydpuffer

Hi Penance

I have 5 DPs in my 20g. It is quite heavily planted. I recently discovered that my dear Ambellina is a male... whoops.... but that brings me to 2 males, 3 females. It's been several months and they are all doing splendidly.

helen38

i have 4 dps in a 20gl, eeny meeny miny and mo. no idea what sex they are yet but the tank is heavily planted so they can escape from each other. fingers crossed though they all seem to be getting on fine.

penance

thanks guys I bought a used 12 gallon eclipse for the puffers but I'm not liking it since it's rather hard to deal with taking off the whole top whenever I need to mess with the decor or maintenance the tank.

I have come to the decision that I won't be using my 29 for the puffers because they are soo tiny that the whole point is for me to view them, I can't even find the one puffer I have one in my 55 lol

It'll probably be another 2-3 weeks before I get the tank and then starting it up but I'll keep you guys on the updates

shih-tzu mom

Penance; DP'S do hide and some for a ;
long time lol My male thimble is just a flash, i see once in a while and Thumbellina i see all the time. hope this helps somewhat-bella

penance

uh oh ... I think I did a bad thing but maybe this will work out

I went to my LFS and they had large GSP about 3 inches big! I couldn't resist, bought 2 and am trying them out, hoping they make it through the night. I was talking with the fish store owner about them and asked if he noticed any aggression among them and he said that mostly he keeps a few feeder guppies in there so during snack/dinner time each get their own meal and not biting each other.

I asked when if he used salt in the aquarium and he told me that he didn't bother with adding salt, this is where I started laughing because he said "these are all freshwater tanks, they have to get used to it" like a military officer

Question: The GSP I bought and some in the tank I noticed have blackish bellies, is this normal?

agabr123

black bellies definitely aren't normal, even them just being grey is cause for concern. they should be white and not sunken in. GSPs need 30 gallons each, and are brackish and need to eventually be switched to full marine. they get up to six inches long, and if you click on GSP in your post (with the blue dashed underlines) then it should take you to the profile for them

penance

just a little update ... they are now called white and black because one has a completely white tummy while the other one still has a blackish belly.

Both are doing well, the black one eats like a pig when I feed them shrimp and bloodworms, I tossed in a small snail the other day and he devoured it! I was expecting him to eat the shell but they didn't, do puffers eat the shell or just the snail?

I've moved them into the 29g for now and the white one just loves to move up and down, over and over again.

The feeder guppies I tossed in are all still in there >.< I was expecting them to be gone already but they won't touch them. I may have to move them into my 55g when the guppies get bigger.

---

I've also bought 3 dwarf puffers because sadly my one lone puffer that I had for the longest time died this past week the ones I got from the pet shop are of course too tiny but they're just sooo adorable

pinkfloydpuffer

Dwarfs will probably just eat the snail, not the shell. They do usually scrape their teeth while getting the snail out though, so it's good enough

Pacing up and down is a sign of boredom generally. Is there lots of decor in that tank? They love exploring.

penance

update: the black one died I sorta knew this death was coming because of his black belly, he will be missed

there was some fake coral decor that was added and I'm going to put some more plants, hopefully he or say will get over their boredom or it's going to drive me crazy watching the little puffer go up and down over and over again