Dwarf Puffers

[GSD]

Well ive had my ten gallon set up for about a month now, used filter media from my old established tank so hopefully it should be coming along nicely and i am still agonising over what to stock it with.
The tank is a 10 gallon, taller than it is long. It will be quite heavily planted when my plants finally arrive.
Filtration seems decent, although it is a filter than came with the tank and i am concidering buying a second.

Anyway i went to the LFS yesterday and saw 2 different puffers. One was bright yellow and the others were alot duller.
I spoke to the man who said he had sold out of the yellow species in 24 hours and will be getting a new batch next sunday and to come in early if i want them. He also told me the yellow ones wernt aggressive to any of the fish in the tanks with them (including molly fry) and since i have always liked puffers i am thinking about going to get one or two next week.

I am just a little concerned with my tank being newly established as to whether this is a good idea or not. How sensitive are they? I was always under the impression they have to be seperated from other fish, but is it possible to keep them with others, say ottos or another bottom feeder?

Any other advice would be apreciated.

Laura

 

[Truck]

Well ive had my ten gallon set up for about a month now, used filter media from my old established tank so hopefully it should be coming along nicely and i am still agonising over what to stock it with.
The tank is a 10 gallon, taller than it is long. It will be quite heavily planted when my plants finally arrive.
Filtration seems decent, although it is a filter than came with the tank and i am concidering buying a second.

Anyway i went to the LFS yesterday and saw 2 different puffers. One was bright yellow and the others were alot duller.
I spoke to the man who said he had sold out of the yellow species in 24 hours and will be getting a new batch next sunday and to come in early if i want them. He also told me the yellow ones wernt aggressive to any of the fish in the tanks with them (including molly fry) and since i have always liked puffers i am thinking about going to get one or two next week.

I am just a little concerned with my tank being newly established as to whether this is a good idea or not. How sensitive are they? I was always under the impression they have to be seperated from other fish, but is it possible to keep them with others, say ottos or another bottom feeder?

Any other advice would be apreciated.

Laura

well he is either stupid or trying to make a profit, puffers should be kept on their own, if you keep dwarfs with molly fry you can kiss them good bye

buy a separate tank for them

 

[nmonks]

Do also bear in mind males and females look different. Females are yellowy-brown with numerous small brown to black spots and a few dark patches. The males are a bit more golden with fewer small spots but many more large dark patches.

As ever, if you can keep more females than males, aggression will be much less of a problem than otherwise. Regardless, allow a good three gallons or so per specimen, assuming of course the habitat contains lots of 3-d structures they can use to mark territories. Essentially "out of sight it out of mind", so the idea is to create lots of tiny caves and crevices where they can hide.

As truckasauras123 above says, mixing with molly fry isn't a good idea. I'd go further and state that dwarf puffers are best kept on their own. They mix well with shrimps up to a point, though baby shrimps do get eaten. As for Otocinclus, a 10-gallon tank is too small to keep a group of these sensitive catfish, and unless you're a reasonably experienced hobbyist, keeping the puffers healthy will be a challenge enough without trying to keep Otocinclus as well. The survival rate of Otocinclus in captivity is dismal.

Always remember a 10-gallon tank is too small for most kinds of fishkeeping. No discussion. So anything you do with it has to be carefully planned and maintained. Best keep things simple in terms of stocking, invest in top-notch filtration, and above all be realistic about how much you can cram in there.

Cheers, Neale

 

[DP1981]

HI Laura

Have a real good read on Puffers, there is a pinned topic on here about them. Dwarf Puffers are smaller than Spotted Puffers, but all are aggressive and should stay on thier own. They even may turn on eachother so best kept alone. They will stay in a community tank for so long looking all innocent but then one day you will wonder where all your fish have gone!

I was going to get one hence my name but I have changed my mind to having a male Betta instead.

Don't listen to your LFS on these, please read up on them, there is so much to learn

Lucie x

 

[jennybugs]

Just to add to the above, never buy a puffer unless you can positively identify it via it's latin name

 

[keenonfish]

Just out of interest do these dwarf variety's puff up (spines too?) like their name suggests?

 

[Truck]

Just out of interest do these dwarf variety's puff up (spines too?) like their name suggests?

all puffers can puff up but only some species have spines, and some others are often confused as porcupine fish

 

[Spanerman]

if they puff up in your aquarium its not a good thing, its either means they feeled threatend or stressed

 

[jennybugs]

Some puffers don't 'puff' as such but get a ridge of erect skin running along the belly and back - redtailed red eye puffers for example. I believe DPs are the same. They don't have spines like some puffers do either.

Also a few puffers puff up 'just because' - the porcupine puffer is one of them I think. Most puff up when scared or threatened as said above though and it's not a good thing to see.

 

[keenonfish]

Oh I appreciate it is a defensive trait and not something you would want to see too often in your aquarium. However I bet 99% of people rreally do want to see it I was just interested that's all I figured they could be called puffers because of their links with the bigger cousins and not actually have this mechanism.

 

[nmonks]

Puffing is stressful if it's something you do by harassing the fish. But puffers occasionally puff by themselves, presumably to exercise the muscles involved and keep the skin stretchy. Male Carinotetraodon puffers will also raise their keels at other males or even their own reflections. If your aquarium has black plastic on the back, male Carinotetraodon will sometimes spend hours trying to scare off their own reflections; it's very sweet.

When doing pufferfish dentistry, sometimes puffers inflate. I have a picture here. Mostly though they're pretty mellow and seem to get used to being handled, if you know what you're doing and don't scare them. So puffing up isn't that common, even when I'm doing a bit of dental work.

Cheers, Neale

 

[GSD]

I have read up on the dp thread and found it very useful

I wasnt going to keep the puffers with molly fry, i meant they were in the tank at LFS with mollys and fry and had been for a few days with no problems, which made me question how agressive they really are.

I would only keep puffers in the tank if i did choose to get them, im more worried about the sensitivity of them etc than putting them with something else, but fiance is winging the tank will look boring with just 2 tiny fish

I know quite abit about fish keeping, and it is this knowing about the water conditions in newly established tanks that is putting me off.

Thankyou everybody for your advice, im still debating it

 

[keenonfish]

Puffing is stressful if it's something you do by harassing the fish. But puffers occasionally puff by themselves, presumably to exercise the muscles involved and keep the skin stretchy. Male Carinotetraodon puffers will also raise their keels at other males or even their own reflections. If your aquarium has black plastic on the back, male Carinotetraodon will sometimes spend hours trying to scare off their own reflections; it's very sweet.

When doing pufferfish dentistry, sometimes puffers inflate. I have a picture here. Mostly though they're pretty mellow and seem to get used to being handled, if you know what you're doing and don't scare them. So puffing up isn't that common, even when I'm doing a bit of dental work.

Cheers, Neale

Thats an interesting link Neale thanks... Wow dentestry on fish that is a new one but it makes puffers even more adorable in a funny sort of way...

LOL I can see a puffer tank appearing sometime in the future

 

[iSnail]

I've seen on a few occasions some of my DP fry puffing up (practising presumably). Also, the female that I lost nearly a year ago puffed up when she was in extreme distress. Every time they deflate, they seem to get hiccups and takes a short while to recover. Must be pretty stressful.

I've posted this before but here goes anyway..... a one week old fry puffing up for unknown reason.