Dwarf Puffers, Are They Easy Or Hard To Keep?

[guppy_man]

i have a 20gal that was hoping to house 4 dwarf puffers.
now i have been told and read that it is 3gal per fish so i think 4 should be ok in a 20gal, i will be feeding them snails, bloodworm and other types of meaty foods.
i know that they should have sand in the tank because they like to curl up on the sand when sleeping.
the tank will have a piece of medium sized driftwood and maybe some java fern and hornwort, is that ok?
the filter is fluval2 with a 50w heater.

what i really wanted to know is......

have you kept dwarf puffers?
how easy are they to look after?

ive been wanting dwarf puffers for a very long time and after reading everyones thoughts on these lovely little fish, i just have to have some

thnx

 

[SLC Flyfishing]

I find them easy to keep! Usually voracious eaters and not too terribly picky as long as it's not flake or pellet! The plants you suggested will be fine, but make sure you create lots of areas for territory as eack puffer will likely want to have his own space. Also make sure to plant the tank so that the lines of sight are broken up. That way the puffers will be less likely to bully eachother!

Be warned that once you get a few puffers, you won't want anything else. IMO they're the best fish to keep!

Good Luck

SLC

 

[guppy_man]

ok thnx slc, ill start a new post if i do get them

 

[kimmers318]

Mine has been real easy to keep once I learned about her! I wanted clown loaches for snails....tank was too small according to the LFS I went to even for just a couple of weeks waiting for large tank to be ready and sold me a dp as a community fish. Things went great, and she was moved to large tank with the other fish. I saw her all of the time although I never saw her eat, until I found her nipping fins practically off my fish! She was plunked into my daughters 5 gallon until I got yet another tank ready! She is now in a 10 gal, eats great, has an oto, 3 dwarf frogs and a ghost shrimp for company. So, she has been in 4 tanks (not including the lfs) since I got her in February and is thriving.
I tried another dp with her in 10 gal and the first 2 days all went well with them swimming around like crazy, then Missy started to beat her up. The new one never ate as far as I could see and I lost her. Since I will never know if new dp was just a weakling to begin with, or if Missy terrorized her literally to death, Missy will remain a solitary dp for her life.

 

[snowyangel]

When petco got Dp's in we immediately picked up 2 and im glad we did b/c now they stopped selling them. Anyways, ours have been healthy, fat puffers since we got them 2 months ago. Haven't had a problem with them and ours gladily accept freeze dried bloodworms(oddly being the fav), frozen bloodworms and brine shrimp. They are abit food aggressive but all I do is put food at opposite ends of the tank so they don't bicker. I read to tell the sexes is as adults males spots will almost form a line on the side of their body and they develope these wrinlke lines behind their eyes. Females have their spots more spread out all over and are rounder and abit larger. Our puffers room mate is a bumble bee goby and they all get along fine(with lots of decor and caves ) .
Here's crappy pics of our tubby punks:

 

[guppy_man]

i thought that bumblebee gobies were brakish? and could not be kept with freshwater fish, am i right?

 

[jayjay]

i used to keep 2 dwarfs in a 15g with no problems. fed well etc.

 

[Fella]

Keeping any fish is made a lot easier with a lot of research, and the right kind of maintenance.

 

[ILM]

I currently have 8 of them and have been keeping dps for about 3 years now. I don't find them any harder to keep then bettas (which I also keep) or guppies and a whole lot easier to keep then seahorses; you just do the weekly tank cleanings, you have to fed them every day, you have to make sure the tank parameters are stable, etc. However, they are small fish and tend to blend easily with the plants and wood and stuff so many people feel they don't get their entertainment value out of them so want to add more or other fish to liven up the tank. You have to decide whether you're ready to have a 20g tank that looks like you don't have any fish in it. Dps will sometimes hide because they are small fish and see life threatening monsters everywhere. If you get 4, you should try to get only one male (4 females, 3 females 1 male) because the males will fight each other when they go into mating mode. Yes, even with all that room--they are highly territorial when they are full grown. Also, pick fish that are healthy to begin with because you don't want to see new fish slowly die because they already had internal parasites when you go them. The fish in the pictures are healthy little guys, nice robust little bodies. Don't get any that have shrunken stomachs. I love them and think they are worth the extra tank space.