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dwarf puffers....anyone?????

3K views 25 replies 8 participants last post by  dprais1 
#1 ·
Hi all,

I'm looking for some dwarf puffer for one of my 10g. Id like to get 3-5 in there but having.g no luck finding any. So if you have any leads around the NW burbs....that would be awesome.

I am willing to pay for shipping too.....just in case anyone is in southern IL (definitely don't want to make that drive Haha)

Thanks
Steve
 
#3 ·
aquatic adventure usually has them, fish planet in deerfield will special order them for you. even petco will special oder but the will charge insane prices.

I have 11 of them welcome to dp land!

I would only keep 3 in 10 gallon, but thats me.
 
#4 ·
I'll take your word....if 3 is a good number then 3 it is! But I was just at AA like 3 days ago....did I miss the puffer tank? And I'm gonna plant the heck outta my tank......is three still the right number?

And I had a friend that worked at AA.....he always told me he would order me anything I wanted.....too bad he is not still there.
 
#6 ·
It is easy to miss the dp tank, you really have to ask. last time they were by the corydoras


full answer is 5 gallons for the first puffer and 3 gallons for each additional, but I really question this. This is for aggression purposes only, as far as I can tell.

After watching mine, and watching the males fight here is what I think. My opinion not fact.

you could keep 10 females in a 10 gallon with no problems ever
2 females and one male would be better than 1f and 1 m, less harassing of each female
if there is a female in the tank and there are more than 1 male then the weaker male will probably suffer. especially in a smaller tank

females ignore each other for the most part
immature puffers like to hang out together
mature males fight violently.
they don't have a territory that I can tell, it is all about having enough stuff in the tank for the weaker one to get away.
males will follow females all over the tank trying to put the moves on her.
well fed puffers seem less nippy towards one another.
 
#7 ·
i saw 'em at the Aquarium Adventure in Hoffman Estates, about a month ago - they were in a tank facing the back wall, on the left as you walk back, almost as you get to the saltwater section.

I think I also remember them at the Living Sea in Park Ridge about 3 weeks ago... right when you walk in (middle section of the store) - to the left of their front plant tank (not their main plant tank).
 
#9 ·
seems to be confusing as juvies, which is all I have ever seen offered for sale. couple things to look for though.

males usually have a wrinkled pattern behind their eyes. they look like fine blue lines and do resemble wrinkles. they also develop a stripe along their belly although this really comes into play as they mature.

they are also less "round" and more torpedo shaped as they mature.

females-more round and no wrinkles

from all i've read and experienced the best and probably only practical thing to do is get a group and as they mature select the ones you want to keep and sell the rest.

with my tank I have at least 4 mature males. they fight, they swim away, they hide, no real issues because they have a mess of plants and a big enough area nothing gets too serious.

In a small tank I could see real problems occurring. the fighting among the males is not gentle play--they can be pretty viscous.


just my OPINION based on EXPERIENCE. not FACT

when i rescape my tank I will increase their number to at least 20 if not 25. we will see....
 
#10 ·
I don't pretend to know anything about these fish (though this thread has piqued my interest and now I'm reading about them).

I found this on wikipedia;
Sexing of juveniles is impossible because these fish "choose" their sex as they mature. Once one puffer begins male he excretes hormones to prevent the other puffers from becoming male. However, if two fish start to mature into males at the same time one will become the dominant male.There is also a dorsal crest, but it lacks special colouration when not erected. Both crests are displayed during courtship while the male circles the female. They also will have more yellow colouration.

Both sexes are primarily yellow with dark green to black iridescent patches on the flanks and dorsal surface, but as with other members of the genus, sexual dimorphism is apparent in mature fish, with males being more brightly coloured than females.[2] Males can also have a dark stripe down the center of their pale belly and iridescent "eye wrinkle" patterns that females do not have. Females are more rounded, tend to be a bit larger than males, and may or may not show more smallish spots between their larger dark markings.
 
#12 · (Edited)
Thanks for the info guys......this is all good stuff.

I'll swing by AA a little later and check to see if they have any Puffers in stock. Unless things have changed, I believe that they get new stock in on wednesdays so it might be a good time to swing on by.

I've read that sexing them is super difficult when they are juvies. I have an extra empty 10g just collecting dust in my closet....so worse case scenario, I get a 3-5, see how they interact, and separate if there is aggression. (Wait a min....setting up a new tank??? Is that worse case scenario, or is that BEST case scenario! :proud:)


@dprais1 - What size tank do you have your Puffers in? Having 20+ puffers in a tank would be awesome. I've never kept them before, but from what I have heard they are super personable fish and a lot of fun to watch. And just curious...where did you get yours from? Did you order them or find somewhere local?
 
#13 ·
best case. dp are really lots of fun. even if they never "puff up".

I feed mine mainly white worms.

I always have enough to start a culture for local dp keepers that want to swing by and get a culture going. nudge nudge say no more

takes about 5 weeks to get a culture really going--about the same time to cycle a tank
 
#14 ·
I feed mine mainly white worms.

I always have enough to start a culture for local dp keepers that want to swing by and get a culture going. nudge nudge say no more

takes about 5 weeks to get a culture really going--about the same time to cycle a tank
might take you up on that down the road but im working on a heavy "culture" of pond snails for some puffer food as we speak!
 
#15 ·
I don't know if they are really personable per se. they are cute little fish and swim kind of funny and slow. but they all pretty much do the same thing.

a bit of anthropomorphism if you ask me. I got most of mine from AA.

males develop strong yellow fins but I have one that has more of orange fins

having 20 in my 75 gallon has been my goal for a while.

problems though...
-as adults they don't school so I have a lot of tiny fish swimming around my tank doing their own thing
--scale, even from 10' away I just have some pale yellow fish in a big tank
---I am of the opinion you either have a dwarf puffer tank or you don't (other fish aren't safe, my rcs population is dwindling...)
----my wife thinks they are boring, cute but boring

What I really need is a basement and have a tank set up just for puffers and another tank with 'pretty' fish for the family.

But that won't be for a while.

my first batch was 12 puffers special ordered. all looked great in the bag, acclimated to my tank over 15 minutes. a few days later all were dead except one.

next batch were from AA, 10 of them. slow acclimation over 30 minutes. all still kickin months later.

If anyone is interested I decided, with the wifes urging, to go ahead and do rainbow fish instead.
 
#18 ·
how big of a tank are the 10 of 'em in? are they happy? recommend an upgrade or no?

i'm looking at finally giving in to MTS and after reading about these guys I think I'd enjoy a tank with 'em.

aren't the full-sized blowfish super poisonous, though? (the flesh I mean). I do have kids visiting my house, I'd hate for one of 'em to drop dead from licking their fingers after petting the fish when I wasn't looking.
 
#19 ·
mine are in a 75 gallon. I think it is saltwater that are poisonous. petting a dp would be like petting a neon tetra, just isn't going to happen,

My honest opinion. Their size and personality and incompatibility with other fish make them a poor choice for a big tank. A 10 gallon tank would fit them perfectly.
they are fun to watch
and although i don't truly think they are any more intelligent or have more personality than any other fish it sure seems like they do
 
#25 ·
although i don't truly think they are any more intelligent or have more personality than any other fish it sure seems like they do
I have one male dp and 3 otocinclus in a 5.5 gallon tank on my desk at work and I'll periodically check out my fish by shifting my eyes over without moving the rest of my body; my puffer will usually swim around doing his thing, but as soon as we make eye contact, he flips out and hides. :)

dprais1, how do you maintain your white worms and would you be willing to ship a small culture?
 
#21 ·
yes, mostly. the males, ime, don't set up a territory they just fight each other or chase when they see each other.

the 5gal-3gal rule is a good guideline but M:M:F rtio is more important.

lets say you want to keep 3 in a 10 gal.

3F fine
1M 2F fine
2M 1F bad idea
3M probably okay because no females to fight over but not sure.

In a 20L I would only put 1M. Bigger than 20L I would try more than 1 M
 
#22 ·
I think that it's all great info and the ratios make a lot of sense too. Thanks!

I feel like its a crap shoot sexing em though at the lfs and if you want to keep more then 1 fish there's some trial and error in finding compatible tank mates?

I recently inherited a spare 30 gallon and I almost am rethinking a smaller tank for a few puffers... IDK
 
#23 ·
sexing them at the lfs was a failure for me. they are usually .5" or less, just too hard.

let me try to explain my thoughts.

30 tetras is much more impressive than 5. They school and look great as a big group.

dp are more like plecos. having a bunch in a tank isn't really any more enjoyable than having 1 or 2.

since you can't really keep most fish with them it seems sort of a waste to dedicate a bigger tank to them when, personally, I get the same happiness from seeing a few as many. (unless you are talking about a really big tank, maybe a 100 gallon long with 40 dps in it, then it takes on a new dimension just for novelty's sake)

I really like the dimensions of a 20Long, so a 20L with a 2-3F and 1 M is what I would do.
A 10 or 30 would work but I don't like the dimensions as much.

You could always put a dozen in a 30 gallon and then just keep the ones you want, they grow fast and in 3 months at most you should be able to sex them easily enough.
 
#26 ·
I have used the coco fiber that comes in brick form for reptiles but now I used jiffy seed starter mix because it is so much cheaper. I take a few 100%dry eggshells and put them in the coffee grinder till they are powder and mix with the coco/jiffy. this stops the mix from getting to acidic

that mix gets moistened until it is very damp but not wet. If I squeeze it I want it to clump but no dripping of water.

1x a week I mix it all up to eliminate anaerobic areas.

I feed my white worms fish food--flakes and algea disks. I never feed bread or yogurt or cat food. cat food is high in protien and you will get more worms faster but I don't have a cat. This is what works for me. I add enough to last 2-3 days and mist the food when I add it.

I cover the food with a piece of hard plastic. If you keep the plastic clean you can often just scrape the worms from that. if not i spoon out a bit with lots of worms and decant them a few times with cold water from the faucet.

I always keep more than one culture going because they can crash over night.
-I have only had one culture crash, but it went from maybe 2 thousand worms to maybe a hundred in a day or two. It takes about 5 weeks for 20-50worms to turn into hundreds (I mean 500 or 800, not 100 or 200)

I keep my cultures in cheap plastic containers. room temp was fine in the winter but now I keep them in a cooler. also in the cooler is a 2 liter soda bottle that gets replaced each morning. The bottles get stored in the freezer and is ice by next day and this keeps the cultures cool enough. make sure the cooler is open a crack for ventilation

hope that helps.

PM if you want a culture, just pay shipping
 
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