Advice on dwarf puffer

Skinned

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Dec 7, 2015
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Hello MFK!

I have a long established 20 gallon tank. It has two HOB filters one full of bio media and the other with typical filter media and some bio filter rocks stuffed in. It is a couple years old and houses a reclusive clown pleco that lives under a small piece of driftwood, a school of 7 harlequin rasboras, and two platys that just chase each other around all day.

Would adding a dwarf puffer end up with a lot of bites being taken out of my other fish? What are your MFK experiences with tankmates?
 
Yes it definitely would. Dwarf puffers should be kept by themselves. You may be able to get away with the pleco but everything else will be dead by the next day. The DP will chase and chase and chase. First fins, then eyes, then death.
 
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Fat Homer

Mmmmm... Doughnuts
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Mar 16, 2009
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Saying it will happen in one day maybe a bit extreme although i do agree its probably not the best idea in only a 20G tank...
 
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List of things my dwarf puffer killed before I knew better (all in the span of about 3 days):

A whole school of corydoras

Some dwarf gouramis i was breeding

4 rainbows

The syno ended up finless and died shortly after

The DP did nothing but chase and kill the whole time (yes, it didn't eat either. I think it was well sustained with the fins it was devouring, though). It was a 40g. Always the same pattern. Fins, eyes, dead.
 

CrazyKoiCracker

Plecostomus
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Oct 1, 2018
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Dwarf puffers are micro hate machines. Species tank only. And more than one only if you have a lot of line of sight breaks.
 

Fat Homer

Mmmmm... Doughnuts
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To be fair to the poor old dwarf puffer, if the tank was excessilvely big for the fish, talking around 100G+, then they can be kept with other fish given there are lots of hiding spaces etc...

In the past, I’ve seen many planted displays that were 100G - 200G+ with maybe 3-5 dwarf puffers and other schooling fish living happily long term... but again, it really does require ample space and not many puffers for it to really work out...
 
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