dwarf puffer??

[scubadan]

Hi today i got a 20gallon and i was thinking about getting some dwarf puffer fish. can the dwarf puffer fish go with the red tailed sharks if so what other fish can it go with?

 

[acetennis2002]

well it is not a very good idea because red tailed sharks dont not like alot of salt in the water which puffers require being that they r breakish fish and they are nasty little buggers they are very agressive tward other fish and nip tails and your shark will not like that i would say add a few more sharks if u have room

 

[scubadan]

ok thanks

 

[acetennis2002]

but i do recomend DP's they r really cute and pretty easy to take care of and they are smart once u have them for a while they will fallow your finger arround the tank

 

[rayjay999]

Actually Dwarf Puffers are freshwater, but I still don't recommend them in a community as they may harass or nip at the other fish, possibly to death...

 

[acetennis2002]

yes they r fresh water but also requisr aquarium salt because they live in breakish waters natively

 

[SirMinion]

yes they r fresh water but also requisr aquarium salt because they live in breakish waters natively

Sorry, not true. Dwarf Puffers are true freshwater fish and do not require and would not benefit from salt in the water.

Like all puffers they are NOT suitable for a community tank and can only be kept with a very small selection of other species.

20g gallons is suitable for no more than 4 dwarf puffers.

 

[Grey Legion]

yes they r fresh water but also requisr aquarium salt because they live in breakish waters natively

Sorry, not true. Dwarf Puffers are true freshwater fish and do not require and would not benefit from salt in the water.

Like all puffers they are NOT suitable for a community tank and can only be kept with a very small selection of other species.

20g gallons is suitable for no more than 4 dwarf puffers.

100% TRUE...

I own and love DP's they never need any salt but do best in a tank just for them and need about 3 to 5 gallons per fish to get there territories set-up also having 1 male to 2 females is best ( if possible )

lots of plants and snails to !!

 

[Torrean]

i would say add a few more sharks if u have room

ummm are you sure about that. red tailed black sharks are very aggressive towards there own kind. I would suggest one red-tailed black shark. You MAY be able to have a dp with a red tailed but I would not try it. The shark will probably end up dead. Another thing. The sharks hate anything that looks like them. Be carefull with what you put with him.


EDIT: yes snails are a must. My petsmart has dp's labelled as fish flake and frozen food eaters. If you try this they'll starve. You should set up a 5 gallon heavily planted pond snail breeding tank unless you want to take a trip to your LFS every other day to get more pond snails. THey need snails in there diet. I believe their beaks grow like squirril teeth. They need snail shells to wear them down. Also do not feed your dp's malaysian trumpet snails. The shell is too hard. did I miss anything or say anything incorrect?

another edit: Minion any chance of getting a list of that very small list of compatible tank mates?

 

[SirMinion]

Minion any chance of getting a list of that very small list of compatible tank mates?

That's SirMinion.

That's a difficult question, because I can only answer this with personal experiance.

We've has absolutely no problems with bristlenose catfish with dwarfs, and this is backed up by Klaus Ebert, a leading pufferfish expert and keeper who recommends bristlenoses with most small freshwater puffers.

We have also had success with the freshwater variety of Bumblebee gobies, the puffers just seem to simply not bother them at all. Maybe it's something to do with the gobies' warning colours that keeps the puffers away. But Frashwater BBGs are hard to find.

We've also tried tetras but lost a whole school of them overnight, and cories but they lost their fins so now ours have only the bristlenoses and BBGs for company.

We have three Dwarfs with two Bristlenoses and four Bumblebee Gobies in a 20g.

 

[Torrean]

sorry about that I forget there is a lady minion

I've heard of keeping cichlids with dwarf puffers. Is this crazy? What I've heard is that the cichlids chase the puffers more than the puffers mess with the cichlids. Don't yell at me I'm not suggesting it just curious about it.

 

[Pufferpack]

lol....our first attempt at keeping Dwarf puffers was in a tank with 6 juvie Mbuna cichlids that were 3 times the puffers size. Sure enough when the puffers were added (from a communtiy tank that they wreaked havok in) the cichlids chased them all into hiding...thinking the cichlids would keep the puffers bad habits in check, we went off to bed. In the morning when we came down to check on the new fish tank we found 6 Dwarf puffers swimming around without a care in the world, 5 cichlids huddled in the cormer in fear, and a dead cichlid lying in the centre of the tank dead...with it's lips ripped off as a warning to the others.
Rule of thumb...no aggressive tankmates with puffers...they will lose

 

[Torrean]

thanks very much.

 

[J-Money]

just my $0.02 but my DP's seem to do fine with my tiger barbs, but i do have them in a 40 USG tank with lots of places to hide if need be. It's crazy, but i also have some guppies in there too. All have been together for about 10 months now , so sometimes you can get lucky. Good luck

 

[Pufferpack]

Yup, I kept dwarves with guppies & swordtails nicely for about a year....then within the next 2 months all the swords and most of the guppies were chewed up and killed.....maturity brings aggression & territoriality