Thoughs on single pea pufer in 20g tall?

I'e been planning on getting a dwarf/pea puffer since march 2019, but things kept getting n the way (bc life). Originally I was going to do a 10 gallon for a single pea puffer, but then ended up moving my daughters betta to the 10 gallon and now I have a 20 gallon tall set up in my room that has been on & off used as a QT tank. However I'm planning on eventually using it for a pea puffer after I put time into setting it up (as it is now bare). Theres gonna be plenty of live plants and I want to try to find good ideas on how to scape it since I'm not very imaginative.

But I wanted peoples thoughts on if 20 gallon tall would be TOO much space for a single pea puffer? If it was a long, i'd put two in there, but as a tall, I don't think that would be a good idea. Would I be better off keeping that as a QT tank and getting maybe a 15 gallon for the pea puffer? 10 was cute when I did it, but I feel like I could do more with a 15 gallon (plus bigger tanks = easier to control the water quality).

 

HI zaI puffers are social and not right to keep one on his own and tbh if it were me I'd put 4 in a 20gal without any worries. I had 4 in a 10 gallon for a long long time with no issues

 

HI zaI puffers are social and not right to keep one on his own and tbh if it were me I'd put 4 in a 20gal without any worries. I had 4 in a 10 gallon for a long long time with no issues

All research i've done on dwarf/pea puffers say they are very territorial and will kill one another.

 

They say 5 gallon for 1 puffer at a ratio of 1 Male 3 female is your 20gal, and I don't know what I had

 

As long as your tank is heavily planted/decorated to break lines of sight, 4 should be fine.

 

I don't think there's such thing as "too much" space for a fish.

There's definitely such thing as too much OPEN space - some fish like to feel enclosed and protected, and will stress out in a tank with nothing but open water.

With a pea puffer, I'd just make sure there was lots of plants, things to hunt, and things to explore. He'll be happy, the tank will be insanely low maintenance, and you shouldn't have any issues.

Pea puffers are definitely not required to be kept socially - they can be kept in groups, given a good amount of space and plants, but they'll chase each other and nip for sure.

If you want more than one, you definitely have the room for it!

 

As long as your tank is heavily planted/decorated to break lines of sight, 4 should be fine.

I wouldn't really want 4, tbh. II only want 1, but my question is would it be too much space for 1?

 

I wouldn't really want 4, tbh. II only want 1, but my question is would it be too much space for 1?

No. Like HarrisonAquatics said, just make sure there are plenty of hiding spaces and things to do. They are very intuitive fish.

 

I don't think there's such thing as "too much" space for a fish.

There's definitely such thing as too much OPEN space - some fish like to feel enclosed and protected, and will stress out in a tank with nothing but open water.

With a pea puffer, I'd just make sure there was lots of plants, things to hunt, and things to explore. He'll be happy, the tank will be insanely low maintenance, and you shouldn't have any issues.

Pea puffers are definitely not required to be kept socially - they can be kept in groups, given a good amount of space and plants, but they'll chase each other and nip for sure.

If you want more than one, you definitely have the room for it!

Defintiely just want the one haha. I have /tons/ of pest snails i've been breeding for the puffer so that I can put a handful in there, let them spread out, and let the puffer hunt. I defintiely plan on it being very jungly and heavily planted since I know they're curious creatures who like to explore

 

Defintiely just want the one haha. I have /tons/ of pest snails i've been breeding for the puffer so that I can put a handful in there, let them spread out, and let the puffer hunt. I defintiely plan on it being very jungly and heavily planted since I know they're curious creatures who like to explore

Just a heads up, some puffers, like my own, will eat snails until they explode. Make sure you have some in another tank for breeding in case your puffer is anything like mine.

 

Defintiely just want the one haha. I have /tons/ of pest snails i've been breeding for the puffer so that I can put a handful in there, let them spread out, and let the puffer hunt. I defintiely plan on it being very jungly and heavily planted since I know they're curious creatures who like to explore

if you just want one puffer look into red eye puffers. They get slightly larger and you could house one in a 20 IMO. I have one in a 10 gallon (just for now, he will be moved to a larger tank soon) because there were some issues with his old tank and he is fine. They can be more $$ though and can be much harder to find.

 

Just a heads up, some puffers, like my own, will eat snails until they explode. Make sure you have some in another tank for breeding in case your puffer is anything like mine.

yeah, i'd never put all of them into the tank at one time, probably just 10 to 15 so that if any escape, it can hunt them down, but not enough for it to over eat.

 

Unlike many species of Tetraodontiformes which are solitary fish, Pufferfish are actually social species which are found in large shoals. They occupy all regions of the tank and can be found in and amongst plant life as well as out in the open scavenging for food.23 Sep 2019

 

Thank you everyone for the input, I have the information I need now I appreciate all the advice.

 

I have a pea puffer in my 8.8 with 2 very small guppies a single Otto cat and a handful of ramshorn snails... he hunts the snails but never messes with anyone else unless they try to take his bloodworms then he pulls them away from em.

 

I'e been planning on getting a dwarf/pea puffer since march 2019, but things kept getting n the way (bc life). Originally I was going to do a 10 gallon for a single pea puffer, but then ended up moving my daughters betta to the 10 gallon and now I have a 20 gallon tall set up in my room that has been on & off used as a QT tank. However I'm planning on eventually using it for a pea puffer after I put time into setting it up (as it is now bare). Theres gonna be plenty of live plants and I want to try to find good ideas on how to scape it since I'm not very imaginative.

But I wanted peoples thoughts on if 20 gallon tall would be TOO much space for a single pea puffer? If it was a long, i'd put two in there, but as a tall, I don't think that would be a good idea. Would I be better off keeping that as a QT tank and getting maybe a 15 gallon for the pea puffer? 10 was cute when I did it, but I feel like I could do more with a 15 gallon (plus bigger tanks = easier to control the water quality).

Dream tank.
Just make sure you plant the living daylights out of it. Infest it with snails as soon as you can as well as any other tanks in your house that you are not using for breeding.
They are the most adorable thing on the planet that is made out of 100% murder.
So your puffer will not be lonely. Even with breeding attempts, sometimes the murder gets the best of them.
I'm running 8 in a insanely planted and snailed 10 gallon and this is possibly inhumane. I'm doing it to pair (pairing involves some inhumanity). I also am running 55-90 gal filtering levels and have 8 tanks supplying snails.
1 pea in a 20 full of places to explore and 1000+ snails to murder is their dream. That is the happiest world you can give them.

While some are saying that puffers are social, in my experience most are single species only. Peas are small enough that you can provide monster surface area and LOS blockage with plants.
Now if you want to run a big tank full of social $$$ puffers consider a 60-75 gal full of congos. (Congos are kind of a dream puffer, that is why they run close to 300$ each. Seriously, they run Mbu prices without the tank cost overhead.)

yeah, i'd never put all of them into the tank at one time, probably just 10 to 15 so that if any escape, it can hunt them down, but not enough for it to over eat.

Puffs do not over eat. What they do do is over pollute. By this I mean they love killing so much that they will keep killing after they are full and just not eat their victims.
Every puffer I have owned has eaten until plump and then just killed for fun.
Fill the pea tank with snails it keeps their brain stimulated, just filter appropriately.

Also as CaptainAquatics suggests you can go cooler since you are going single puff. I haven't tried red eyes as I understand they have more hate in them than peas do (and I have lost peas to the "murder game"). But with a single fish tank I'd leap at a red eye.

Just a heads up, some puffers, like my own, will eat snails until they explode. Make sure you have some in another tank for breeding in case your puffer is anything like mine.

What kind do you own? Or did you mean they will kill all day and night, so stock extra snails and not that they will eat themselves to death betta style?
Explode sounds like death.

A pea tank after 1 year.