Dwarf Puffer in an 8 gallon Biocube?

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J

jah29

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 27, 2008
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pa, usa
I was thinking about getting an 8 gallon Biocube and putting a dwarf puffer in it.

1) Some sites online say these guys are freshwater and some say they are brackish, so I'm not really sure. I was wondering what are the actually water parameters for this fish?
2) Also, I was wondering if there are any suitable tank mates for this fish and how many tankmates I can keep in the 8 gallon?
3) And finally, I was wondering what the Dwarf puffers need to eat?

Thankyou
 
I have read mostly that they are strictly freshwater. Mine is in freshwater, and he has been in freshwater for months and he is doing great.

I wouldn't really keep any tank mates in his biocube, dwarf puffers can be territorial. Mine likes to sneak up on my other fish and take bites out of their fins (which is why he is getting his own tank).

You may be able to keep two in the biocube, people say 10 gallons for two but if you get less mean ones you could keep two.

As for diet, in the wild they eat mostly snails. You can try to start a snail colony in the tank or just go to fish stores and ask for snails. I have seen mine eat live brine/BBS as well. He doesn't really go for frozen though.
 
They are considered to be freshwater puffer. For water parameters, consistency is much more important that trying to match their wild parameters. So doing 50% weekly water change of tap water is your best bet, barring any extremes in conditions.

They apparently love to eat fins, so anything that you do decide to try with them needs to be fast and have short fins and probably a surface inhibitor would be a good bet. But 8 gallons would probably be a good size tank for a male/female combination alone since they max out at about 1 inch.

Diet, they are a wild caught fish so getting them started on dead foods may take some effort, but I commonly hear that they take frozen foods at first. Snails are an essential part of their diet since their teeth continuously grow and will essentially grown shut if they aren't fed something to wear their teeth from time to time.

Also watch the fish for signs of internal parasites for the first while.
 
I have decided to go with the 14 gallon Biocube. Does this mean that I would have better luck keeping tankmates for the dwarf puffer? Or would it be better to just keep 2 or 3 dwarf puffers?
 
no not really I was just hoping I could potentially put a small school of some kind of active fish. Maybe some kind of barb or tetra?
 
DPs are strictly FW fish. They do very well with otos & cherry shrimp. You could keep 3-4 DPs in the 14g or 3 DPs & a few ottos/shrimp. Be sure you can sex the DPs--males will fight to the death: http://www.**************.com/forum...rinotetraodon-travancoricus-the-dwarf-puffer/
 
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