How many gallons should a puffer be kept in?

[MrMashashin]

Well I was thinking of getting a puffer from my lfs. It's his "Exotic Week" So he's buying all kinds of cool and exotic fishies. So I was wondering, how many gallongs do they need? 10? 20? I'm thinking they need around 20 but im not sure.

 

[MAM]

first of all, what KIND of puffer is it there are many kinds, they come in many sizes and some are fw and some are bw. we need to know exactly what kind you want to tell you a proper tank size

 

[MrMashashin]

fw and bw mean Fresh water and bracking water?

Um i was wondering about the figure 8 i think its called. thats the only one i can think of but i liked the way it looked.

 

[FrankSlapperinni]

A figure 8 puffer should be kept in a 20 gallon aquarium. It grows to about 3 inch's, and should be kept brackish water (sg. of about 1.005). You may want to hold off for a while on buying one, as keeping a puffer takes lots of research, and should be carefully planned out before buying one.

 

[MrMashashin]

yes i was going to draw up some questions to ask the puffer guy here on the forum about them before i got one.

 

[Teelie]

Dwarf Puffers can be kept in as little as 3 gallons although I wouldn't keep one in less than 5.

 

[MrMashashin]

do you have a dwarf puffer i could see?

 

[Teelie]

I don't keep any myself but I know a few sites with pictures

http/www.pufferfish.co.uk/aquaria/specie...es/tetrtrav.htm

 

[Aquascaper]

I have just entered into the wonderful world of puffers

I've got 2 green spotted puffers in a 15g - sand substrate, mopani wood and assorted plants.

Some info:

Figure 8 Puffer
Size - 3" max
Min Tank Size - 30" x 15" x 12"
Water - Soft to Medium Hardness/pH7/22 - 26 Degrees
Diet - Carnivorous
Temperament - Aggressive (Species only preferred)

Green Spotted Puffer
Size - 7" max
Min Tank Size - 36" x 15" x 12"
Water - Hard/pH8/24 - 28 Degrees
Diet - Omnivorous
Temperament - Aggressive (Community only with similar size fish)

Dwarf Puffer
Size - 1"
Min Tank Size - 18" x 12" x 12"
Water - Soft/pH6/22 - 28 Degrees
Diet - Carnivorous
Temperament - Aggressive (Best kept in a group)

This is what my research turned up about the three most common species, hope this helps at all.

 

[MrMashashin]

next time i go into the closer lfs ill ask the guy how much a dwarf/pygme puffer will cost.

 

[SirMinion]

next time i go into the closer lfs ill ask the guy how much a dwarf/pygme puffer will cost.

My LFS does dwarfs for about £2 each.

They are an ideal starter puffer as they are hardier than most and are freshwater.

They can be kept with other fastmoving fish such as neons, and armoured fish like plecs, but don't try to keep them with anything that has large or flowing fins (like bettas or guppies) or with any invertibrates (like shrimps, crabs or apple snails) because they will eat them, even if it's many times the puffer's size.

The need a planted (real or fake) tank if keeping more than one.

They eat any invertibrate, mine go insane for live bloodworm.
They will NOT eat processed foods such as flakes and pellets, but mine are happy to eat frozen bloodworm and daphnia.

Good luck!

 

[MrMashashin]

awesome! I'll have toorder two once my platy fry are grown up.

 

[SirMinion]

awesome! I'll have toorder two once my platy fry are grown up.

Yes, once they've grown up, or they will be dinner.