Holiday And Feeding Dwarf Puffers

[gangeox]

Hi there,
We are considering setting up a dwarf puffer tank but as we are away for 2 weeks in April (getting married in Antigua!!) how can we ensure the puffer has enough food for this length of time, our community tank will have a food timer on it, can we put lots of snails in before hand?
Also as it will be about 5 gallon we are looking for a tank mate or 2 for him, any suggestion?

Thanks in advance.

 

[nmonks]

We are considering setting up a dwarf puffer tank but as we are away for 2 weeks in April (getting married in Antigua!!) how can we ensure the puffer has enough food for this length of time, our community tank will have a food timer on it, can we put lots of snails in before hand?

The snails are a good idea, and should work well. Can you ask a neighbour to feed your fish once or twice while you're gone? I do that with mine, and simply put plastic bags or cups in the freezer with appropriate amounts of food.

Also as it will be about 5 gallon we are looking for a tank mate or 2 for him, any suggestion?

In a 5 gallon tank, you can choose lots of things to go with your pufferfish: rocks, plants, pebbles, plastic plants, ceramic ornaments, mechanical divers blowing bubbles, bogwood, algae balls, etc. In fact the only things you can't have in there are fish or shrimps.

Cheers, Neale

 

[gangeox]

Thanks for the reply, i have read in other threads that some people put ottos in with them, are you advising no tank mates at all? what about a male and female one do you think that would be ok?, it seems a shame that he will be all alone

 

[Fella]

If you want to keep more than 1 DP, you really need more space. If you can afford to go for a bigger tank (like 10g) you could go for a pair.

You never know though, he might befriend a mechanical diverblowing bubbles.

 

[nmonks]

As Fella suggests, each dwarf puffer needs around 5 gallons of space, so yes, I'm suggesting in a 5 gallon tank you don't add anything else.

Most freshwater pufferfish are territorial animals. They spend their entire lives on their own except for spawning, and even then, once the eggs are laid, it's the male who guard the eggs and the female is pushed away. So they don't need friends.

Cheers, Neale

 

[DiscusAngel]

i thought they needed 3gal each?? which leaves 2 gal left.. you could add a oto?

 

[nmonks]

Three gallons would be the absolute minimum per dwarf puffer if you were doing big (50%) water changes every day or two and maintaining the nitrates below 20 mg/l, which itself demands the use of something OTHER than municipal water out of the tap (which typically has 20-40 mg/l nitrate). Five gallons per puffer is more realistic, but even then that is still a tiny amount of water. The bigger the tank, the easier it is to look after, and the price difference between setting up a 3 or 5 gallon tank compared with a 10 gallon tank is trivial, so using a 10 gallon tank should be a no-brainer.

Otos do (usually) work well with dwarf puffers, so the combination you propose is a viable one. But otos are schooling fish, they need to be kept in at least groups of three or four. They need excellent water quality, lots of oyxgen, and very low nitrates. The fate of most otos is to die within a year, often within weeks of purchase. This is because they ARE NOT easy fish.

There's also a question of behaviour. My slightly larger Carinotetraodon irrubesco were very shy when in a 10 gallon tank, but in a 40 gallon tank (with other fishes) they are much more outgoing, and the male especially spends hours displaying against his reflection at the back of the tank. It's very cool to watch, as he changes colour and sticks out these weird keel things on top and bottom, and looks more like a triggerfish than a puffer. In other words, you'll get the most out of your pufferfish if you give them more space. The joy of puffers is their intelligence, and that isn't always obvious if the fish feel cooped up in a tiny tank.

Cheers, Neale

i thought they needed 3gal each?? which leaves 2 gal left.. you could add a oto?

 

[gangeox]

Thanks for all the replies, as i said at this moment in time it was just a thought of getting a dp maybe we will think again!

Cheers

 

[Tommo]

a perfect tankmate for dwarf puffers has to be nerite snails, they are brilliant at eating algea and so heavily armoured the puffers dont have a chance of eating them.

the only way to feed them for two weeks would be to get a neighbor to do it as frozen food will rot in a mechanical feeder.