a Freshwater Puffer Community tank?

new2fish

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I am inspired by Pufferpack's puffer community tank and want one too. I would like it with DP's and some other, compatable freshwater puffers. So can anyone give me names of some other puffers that can be in a community with Dwarfs in a 55 gallon tank? And how many puffer can I put in there? It will be densly planted and with rocks. I also need to buy all the puffers that I'll be getting online because my LFS just has GSP's. So does anyone know of a reputable online store that I can buy my puffers from? Thanks!
 
The setup that Pufferpack has is very unusual in that everyone tolerates each other - such a situation could change at any time. I wouldn't recommend mixing different puffer species unless you know exactly what you are doing. One bite from a puffer is enough to cause significant damage to another.

Please stick to species tanks until you know your puffers well enough to judge their potential reaction and attitude to others. Individual puffers in a species can have wildly varying traits.

I really would suggest you stick with just the dwarfs if you are truly new to fish. Puffers aren't generally beginner fish anyway so I wouldn't suggest anything more specialist than that yet.
 
As Lady Minion mentions, I have been very lucky with my puffer community and the individual personalities of the fish in there. I would recomend that if you are going to attempt any type of "community" tank with puffers you always keep a spare tank cycled and ready for relocation in the case of aggression troubles. My community has been working for a couple years so far, but with the estimated life span of most puffer species, 2 years is a drop in the bucket, and I would not consider this mix a success for a few more years yet. As I keep multiple tanks (as well as a spare cycled tank) I am able to relocate multiple fish at a moments notice or I probably wouldn't have risked trying to build my little Pufferville.
That being said, if you are going to attempt a mixed tank, South American puffers (Colomesus asellus) are a good choice IMO to mix with the Dwarves, and if you could find them (not too common anymore) Leopard puffers (Tetraodon schoutedeni) are reported to be one of the less nippy FW puffers......but be very sure of your ID before purchasing "Leopard puffers" from the LFS, as they often mis-identify GSP's as Leopards and these are totally unsuitable for FW tanks and usually more aggressive towards tankmates.
 

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