Dwarf Puffer in 6.5g?

[Phantom Thief]

I have an empty 6.5g tank jus sitting there. Can i put a dwarf puffer in there? I checked many websites, some said they need 30g While others said a 5g will do. Water chemistry seems to not be a problem. Next is food. MUST it be live food? what if i feed it pellets? will it accept them? I really want them, hope you will answer my questions.

Thanks a lot,
P.T.

 

[AmberC]

I have also seen a lot of people say that ONE puffer in a 5 gal is fine all by itself.

As far as food. They DO need live food sometimes. Not everyday tho. I feed my puffer frozen bloodworms, frozen brine shrimp and once a week live snails . They need the snails to keep their beak filed down.

 

[jread]

I have an empty 6.5g tank jus sitting there. Can i put a dwarf puffer in there? I checked many websites, some said they need 30g While others said a 5g will do. Water chemistry seems to not be a problem. Next is food. MUST it be live food? what if i feed it pellets? will it accept them? I really want them, hope you will answer my questions.

Thanks a lot,
P.T.

Sent you a PM

 

[diVer]

You could probably put 2 in there if there are lots of plants and caves.

 

[Opcn]

You need to provide them with a frozen or live staple food and a live snail once every now and then (not Malaysian trumpet snails though). As I recall it does not get very cold in Malaysia (hehehe) so you should be able to collect live food if you wanted too.

Opcn

 

[JoKeR]

Thats in alright sized for a puffer lots of snails though LOL and caves.

Maybe even an otto

 

[Phantom Thief]

Thanks a bunch guys . Live food eh? i wonder if it would eat ants... i know how to get them by the truckload. Snails is no problem, outside in my mother's lily pot there are many pond snails. Can snails be the staple food?

P.T.

 

[diVer]

I'm not entirely sure on this but I wouldn't feed mainly snails, it might break their teeth down too much. I give mine bloodworms and brine shrimp, I give them snails once or twice a week.

 

[Opcn]

Dwarfs are what is referred to as slurps and actually suck the snail out of the shell. Also with soft shelled snails if the puffers teeth get worn down too much they will actually start growing faster.

Opcn

 

[AmberC]

Thanks a bunch guys . Live food eh? i wonder if it would eat ants... i know how to get them by the truckload. Snails is no problem, outside in my mother's lily pot there are many pond snails. Can snails be the staple food?

P.T.

You can feed them snails from right out in your garden?[/COLOR]

 

[jread]

Thanks a bunch guys . Live food eh? i wonder if it would eat ants... i know how to get them by the truckload. Snails is no problem, outside in my mother's lily pot there are many pond snails. Can snails be the staple food?

P.T.

You can feed them snails from right out in your garden?[/COLOR]

I personally wouldn't do that just because of the risk of diseases/infections brought in from an outdoor snail.

 

[AmberC]

Thanks. Thats what I thought

 

[Lithril]

You can feed worms out of the garden (mine like to have tug of wars with them) just make sure that the ground you get the worms from don't have any chemical fertilisers on it.

I wouldn't put any more than 1 dwarf in a 6.5 gal, the water volume is too small, the less water the quicker the toxins will build up. Ideally you'll still need a filter which will turn over the tank water about 5 times an hour, in a tank that size I'd also look at doing small partial water changes twice a week.

If you use sand as a substrate then put some malaysian trumpet snails in the tank, they constantly multiply and provide a continuous supply for the lil fella (you'll still need to feed bloodworm, shrimp, etc.)