Show Me Your Pea Puffer Tanks

[Samanthaljay]

HI All! Long time no talk

My 29 gal has been fully stocked and thriving for months now and to be completely honest I feel like something is missing from my life as far as setting up a tank goes. (the MTS is creeping in full force). For months and months I was testing (still doing that), stopping at the LFS, quarantining, designing, researching, stocking etc to get to where I am now. It feels great don't get me wrong but like I said.. something is missing.

I had a bladder snail hitch hike on one of the plants I bought months ago and didn't think anything of it. They still don't bother me much but I definitely have a little colony of about 10-20 of them in my tank (probably more that I don't even see on a regular basis). Which got me to thinking what about a Pea Puffer tank? This would be a slow build which I think would solve my desire to create another tank as I would want the plants to be thriving before adding the puffers which would give time for my snails to keep reproducing.

I would like to see some Pea Puffer inspo if you don't mind showing off your wonderful tanks! I have been doing research the past few weeks so this isn't anything I am jumping into today or even this week but just gathering all my thoughts! I would love to hear what you think about owning Pea Puffers and the size tank/ equipment you find to work best.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Pat93]

I don’t have many good pics right now cause I’m at work but I have four and I keep them all in separate and very different tanks so I will post more when I get home.

As for the snails I feed mine a combo of snails and black worms because they are such voracious eaters my 30 gallon and several other community tanks with snails in them are having trouble keeping up. (Even with 5 different species of “pest” snails which I keep cause I think they are awesome and good overfeeding indicators)

I keep all my snails in my community tanks as well but Since your taking your time like a good fishkeeper I would suggest cultivating the snails in a separate tank with a warmer temperature that you can easily overfeed without harming your fish. This could be as small as 1 gallon. the warm temps will accelerate the snails metabolism making them reproduce faster, as will over feeding. I can not do this because I already have too many tanks and overfeedimg my communities or heating them more then they already are is not an option.

Also harvesting all the little snails becomes a pain so I suggest a little 1 liter container with some moss balls so you can collect the snails in it when you feel like it and then access them easily for feeding. This will also help you keep track of around how many snails you have left.

I may be over feeding but I put in 4 decent sized bladder snails every other day and blackworms are a treat for in between if they are begging really hard
All of my peas have been doing fine for months now so that’s why I feel comfortable sharing that lol

 

[Samanthaljay]

View attachment 568937 View attachment 568934 I don’t have many good pics right now cause I’m at work but I have four and I keep them all in separate and very different tanks so I will post more when I get home.

As for the snails I feed mine a combo of snails and black worms because they are such voracious eaters my 30 gallon and several other community tanks with snails in them are having trouble keeping up. (Even with 5 different species of “pest” snails which I keep cause I think they are awesome and good overfeeding indicators)

I keep all my snails in my community tanks as well but Since your taking your time like a good fishkeeper I would suggest cultivating the snails in a separate tank with a warmer temperature that you can easily overfeed without harming your fish. This could be as small as 1 gallon. the warm temps will accelerate the snails metabolism making them reproduce faster, as will over feeding. I can not do this because I already have too many tanks and overfeedimg my communities or heating them more then they already are is not an option.

Also harvesting all the little snails becomes a pain so I suggest a little 1 liter container with some moss balls so you can collect the snails in it when you feel like it and then access them easily for feeding. This will also help you keep track of around how many snails you have left.

I may be over feeding but I put in 4 decent sized bladder snails every other day and blackworms are a treat for in between if they are begging really hard
All of my peas have been doing fine for months now so that’s why I feel comfortable sharing that lol
View attachment 568936

awesome! thanks for the tips! I thought about doing a small separate space just for snails but wasn't sure about how to go about doing that so your suggestions are appreciated. I will look more into that

 

[Pat93]

Whoops, meant to post more then that but accidentally hit the button lol

 

[Pat93]

10 gallon, I used to have two in here and they had a divider but I felt they were stressing eachother out so I moved Rodney to his own 5 gallon
Sponge filter
Walmart heater
I am just realizing while looking at this pic that I need to stick the heater back on the wall lol
I also suggest more tank deco than this

5 gallon
Sponge filter and Walmart heater


5g tank sponge filter and heater this one is my most interactive puffer also the only female
I’m trying her out with some dwarf shrimp that I bred a little while back and it’s going well so far.

5g
Hang on back with current restriction and... no heater?! .
Somehow this tank stays at 79 just like all my other tanks only dips to like 76 at night.
This is Rodney’s tank and it’s setup to be viewed from the small sides.

I’m posting all this because while there are many helpful people on the forum. I have noticed a distinct lack of responses on my own personal puffer themed posts, idk if people here just don’t generally keep them or what. There are quite a few people who have pea puffers that are pretty active so hopefully you get more input then just mine lol

I attempted to keep them all in a group (20g long) and failed resulting in the death of 1 of my original 5 puffers.I believe my gender ratio is wayyyyyyyy off 3 males 1 female remain I think the one that died was a female but it was when I first got them so they weren’t quite sexable yet)

I had prepared separate tanks for everyone when I got them so instead of continuing to attempt a group I just separated them all and I highly suggest just one per tank because they seem to interact with you more that way.

Lastly just a little shameless self promotion
Here is a link (if it works) to my YouTube video on pea puffers
Pea Puffer care: an introduction.

I’m just starting out (literally my mom is one of my only subscribers lol) but I tried to include a lot of factual info as well as what works for me personally.
I always suggest people research multiple different sources before they purchase a fish so once again kudos to you for having patience and planning things well, unlike me lol.