Sap & Dp

[myenigmaself]

Hi All,

I'm planning on getting some South American Puffers for various reasons. My better half, however, fell in love with some pea puffers (dwarf puffers) at the LFS yesterday evening. She was very interested in getting some, as "they are so cute!" I have kept dwarfs in the past and I really like them, but I'm more interested in the SAPs at this point. So, I figure I at least have to ask if anyone has had any luck keeping the two species together. From what I understand the DPs are much more aggressive and territorial, but SAPs should be able to hold their own. I can imagine that feeding might get tricky too. My tank is 55g so I would have plenty of room for 3 SAPs and a few DPs (using the 5 gallon rule with some extra room to spare).

Also, in a somewhat related question, I'm having trouble finding snails. I was planning on using a 10g side tank to breed pond snails. I went to a few LFS, and the best I could find was mystery snails. They aren't very active breeders (or so I've been told) so I don't think that's a good choice. I asked about pest snails and they said they had none. I didn't believe them so I looked at their plant section. They were right. I couldn't find a single snail or egg glob. All the ponds around here are frozen this time of year, so I'm at a loss. Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[Davo86]

SAP's are very active and you will find it near to impossible to feed the slow moving dwarfs,
Another issue is the adult sizes, SAP's getting to about 6inches whilst dwarfs reaching barely an inch.

The 5 gallon rule applies to dwarfs but not to SAP's
for SAP's IMO your looking at 30G for one then 10G for every addition SAP

I would personally set up a small 10G for a couple of DPs and have the 55G for a trio of SAPs

 

[myenigmaself]

Thanks Davo! Yeah, I was worried about the feeding. I saw a video of a SAP chasing around a ghost shrimp. A DP would never be able to compete with that. I think that solves that quandry. 3 SAPs it is. Now if I could only find some snails

Thanks!