starting a new dwarf puffer and i need some advice

[puffer girl]

 
   Hi
       i just buy a new tank and i want to put some dwarf puffer and i would like advice . I have a 29 tall gallons tank , an aquaclear 70 . I would like to know what kind of substrat to buy ( small or bigger ), what kind of set up they like , what light they need or prefer . If you think of something else i need to know please feel free to tell me about it , il will take any idea and trick you may have .

Regards
puffergirl 

[beowulf]

http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_puffer3.php

[kennyman]

Is this your first tank puffer girl? If so, you will want to lean about how a tank cycles and what happens to fish during this process.

[puffer girl]

Yes , this is my first tank in life , i  buy the tank because i fall in love with puffer , i decided to go with freshwater to begin and after maybe a years i want one with brackish water . I ' m so nervous about that , i'm like a child in front of a christmas three .

regards
Puffer girl

[beowulf]

Don't buy any fish yet then and read the article on the left about cycling your tank so that it has the proper bacteria to allow your future fish to survive.

[zippity]

Ok well, we will assume that your tank is fully cycled, and now to introduce all the stuff in it.

I have a 29 gal dwarf puffer tank myself for over a year now and when people come over it is a highlight of my house to show them.

Dwarf puffers are very territorial and can be aggressive, you just don't see it very much because they are so tiny. What you need in your tank is alot of coverage. I have about 10 plastic plants in my tank, you can check it out in my gallery of pictures. They need alot of things to block their view of other puffers. I also have a couple statues and a fake piece of driftwood in it. A few months ago I even had a huge clump of najas grass which was awesome for coverage and they did so well with this but to be honest the grass was so thick, you couldnt see the puffers too well.

As for substrate, any gravel will do, just not small enough they swallow. I went with gravel with color so the puffers darker color will stand out and thus being able to see them.

I have 2 AC Aquaclear filters on. Both are mini's or known as AC 20's. They are dirty little puffers. So with two smaller filters doing the clean up job, it works and smaller filters to minimize the rougher current flow of water as not to stress or tire them out. What I mean by dirty is their food and not really their waste or poop.

Now as for territory, it is written on many websites to allow 2-3 gal rule for each puffer. With my 29 gal whenever I tried to introduce 10 puffers in my tank, nature would always seem to kill off 2-3 of them quickly. I always seemed to stabilize at 7 puffers in my 29 gal. I then would add 2-3 more and bang, back down to 7 within a week or so. Now this may not happen for you as I have now 9 puffers doing very well in my tank for about a month's time now.

Now for food, these guys are fed frozen brine shrimp on a nightly basis and they are supplemented by pond snails as a good treat about 1x a week. Thanks to some people on here who collect their useless snails for me(actually for my wife) and give them to us.

They are according to research and from my experience only compatible with otocinclus in their tanks. Anything else would be too much of a nuisance or a threat. The otocinclus clean the tank very well. I would suggest at least 5 of them.

As for lights, it doens't matter. I have had them in with 15 watt light bulbs to 30 watts.

These dwarf puffers are extremely friendly to you their owner. When we feed the pond snails to them, I will always put a snail on tip of my finger and watch thse guys come after it and chew on the meat while on my finger. Their curiousity will get the better of them, what I mean by this for example today I did a water change in their tank and 1 of them went right up into my python and I had to stop the current so he could fall back down out of tube. They will come check out your nets and fingers and when changing their scenery around they will not hide away but come out and see what you are doing.

Now depending on how much you feed them 1-2x day, and how much waste is in tank, I do a 25-35% water change weekly. I feed only 1x a day.

I hope that helps, any more questions go ahead ask me or my wife, her name on here is zippitygirl.

Cheers,

Terry

[zippity]

As beowulf said, do not do anything I have mentioned until you cycled that tank. I prefer to do a fish cycle. Set up your tank with everything you need, and buy about 4-5 zebra danios, and let them cycle your tank for about a month. This cycle is much needed before you put anything exotic like a dwarf puffer in it. The cycle is first brought up by ammonia and then broken all the way down to ....................well read the article and you will see how it is done.

When you are done, then you are ready for the puffers, just don't be in a hurry, be patient about it meaning a month or so and then your puffers will survive and you won't be just buying them and killing them quickly.

[puffer girl]

Thank's a lot

               that help me a lot , i had to admit that i was disappoint that i have to wait a month to put my puffer , but i dont want to kill them , so i guess i have no choice .    I will go read the article you told me .

Regards
Martine

[beowulf]

You could speed it up if you know someone with a well established tank that could give you some gravel which you then hang in the tank in an old nylon or even better some filter media for your filter.

[zippity]

yes that is the faster way of cycling.........get a used, I mean bein gused filter from someone you know that can spare it, and that should take within a week but others might give you a better timeline on this. I would still start off with some cycling fish and give it at least another week that way for bacteria to build up and your nitrogen cycle to establish itself. Dwarf puffers are very fragile I find from my experience, it will either work or it won't at all.

[puffer girl]

Hey

that a good idea , ok now i have to find some friend who had a tank lol .... But still i love the idea of not have to wait another month . Maybe women are more impatient then men for some thing .

Regards
Martine

[PrincessFish]

Hi PufferGirl,

       I was just sitting down to read my new copy of 'Tropical Fish Hobbyist' magazine and found an article entitled "The Dwarf Puffer - A Pleasant Little Surprise".  Apparently SuperPet may have this magazine if you are interested.  Or, if you want to message me with your mailing address I can send you a photocopy.  Or, if you are in Ottawa and we can arrange it I would also be willing to donate some nicely used filterfloss to your cycling to help speed up the process.  Having just gotten started myself I can appreciate your frustration at having to wait.  My cycle didn't take that long so maybe you can be lucky too!  Good luck!

[zippity]

I was lucky when I started my puffer tank. I already had a cycled tank from other fish before, filter media, fake plants and gravel all were used in other tank. So I left a couple fish in there for a week to make sure, then took them out and put into another tank and introduced 10 puffers.

On this forum you will get people I am sure with extra cycling material for you to start quicker, and no i wasn't patient either to start these guys off, well worth the use of my 29 gal tank.

The first pic is what it looks like now and the second is when I had it filled to the top with the najas grass I was telling you about, either way lots of coverage especially when they hit puberty and adulthood.

And yes believe it or not there is anywhere from 7-10 adults in that picture, hahahah so tiny so cute.

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[puffer girl]

Wow
       thank's to all your reply that help me a lot , but right now i'm on hold for my project with my tank , something came up in my personal life . I'll be in touch if i have more questions , you have been so nice to me , since it's was the first time that i post here . I was shy to post before because i'm french and i dont want people to laft at me with my bad english , since i know someone very close to me , who post here almost every day , i was scared to be ridiculous, but now i know it will not be the case if he see my post .

Regards
Martine   

[PrincessFish]

Martine,  si tu tu senti mal, tu peut me demander d'ecrire en francais pour que tu peut rire a moi!!     A tontot j'espere!

[puffer girl]

Hihihi ! 

       that make me feel better thanks , is my english ok or not ? I would like know that will help me to write better .

Regards
Martine   

[babblefish1960]

I was shy to post before because i'm french and i dont want people to laft at me with my bad english , since i know someone very close to me , who post here almost every day , i was scared to be ridiculous, but now i know it will not be the case if he see my post .

Regards
Martine   

I am glad that you finally feel comfortable enough to post, no one is going to make fun of your English, we're all here for the fish, and they speak neither language. And your English is not bad, it is creative, and good for you. I expect you to speak up more as I'm positive you have much to say.

Martine,  si tu tu senti mal, tu peut me demander d'ecrire en francais pour que tu peut rire a moi!!     A tontot j'espere!

That is cute, thanks for passing along a friendly invitation, in the end, Nous faisons des bisous à nos poissons and they love it.