Well, i saw some videos of dwarf puffers and saw some people that keep them and now i REALLY want to set up a 5 gallon dwarf puffer tank. They look VERY cute!! Can anyone give me some advise on how to keep one and if they need any special things or care or anything like that? I know that they need snails to keep there teeth trimmed down. Iv never kept freshwater puffers before but i have kept saltwater puffers. Will a 5 gallon be enough for 2 dwarf puffers? I know that they get up to 1 inch long. The reason i want to get 2 is because i think if i keep only one S/he will get lonely. Any advise will be greatly appreciated. Oh yea, i also want to make it a heavily planted tank.

Check out http://www.dwarfpuffers.com/
Lots of information there regarding keeping them up etc. They are very smart with lots of personality.

Im all ready a member on that site.

i dont think there will a problem with heavily planted tank. not 100%. give a shot.

My experience with dwarf puffers was not a good one. They require frequent feeding and are very picky about food. You need to get blood worms but not any will do, they must be skinny bloodworms and generally do not last long refrigerated. Constant freezing and thawing doesn't really work either. I ended up spending about 100 dollars in food cost on just three puffers in no time at all and they STILL got very emaciated and died after about 3 months. Granted I purchased only frozen blood worms and not live ones. My attempt at a snail farm for food did not fare well either as they don't so much eat the snails as they do murder them and let them rot so feeding them snails in my experience is no substitute for blood worms.

Bottom line, they are high maintenance fish.

I setup a 29g tank (see link in sig)...but the wife loved the Kuhli's so much she doesn't want to chance them on the DP's...so now its a community tank...all the info you need is at the other forum....there are some other folks w/ dp tanks, do some searchs for Dwarf puffer you'll find them I think...

I wouldn't say fish get lonely...they might get stressed without other fish around, but it's not quite the same thing.

Haha! Anthropomorphism can be misleading...

I've had the opposite experience re:feeding snails. Mine loves them and I keep a steady supply of pond snails going in my 20 gallon for him. I have to actually not over feed him or he ends up getting fat!

I have 4 DPs in a 37 gal tank with 2 otos. I feed mine live black worms and snails with the occasional brine shrimp snack. If the snails are too big, they will "murder" them and let the snail rot in the tank. I just make sure the snails are the right size and the puffers will sneak up and suck the snail right out of the shell. They are fun fish to have and watch.