pea puffer?

[racefiend]

As usual I can never get the same answer from my local fish stores so I will ask the experts. A store near me has a pea puffer in their discus display,they say that he has never been a problem. All literature i've seen suggests otherwise.I would like to put one in mine but I have a kind aggressive discus tank so I am thinking this will bring out the aggressive side of the puffer.

[dwilder]

most puffers are very bad fin nippers

[garikfox]

That puffer has many names, I have 17 of them, Around here they call them "Dwarf Puffer's".

There actually the smallest truefreshwater species as of yet known to man/human's !, LoL :wink:

And yes they will nip Discus Fins.....

[racefiend]

oh well, maybe another day, another tank. Thanks

[Ben]

I want a puffer.....

[RipSlider]

I've kept dwarfs with Angels and keyholes, along with sword tails etc, and never had any problems.

They're so small that they just stay out of the way. Equally, my fig 8's are definately the runts of my community tank, even the botia loaches boss them about. They do make excellent fish though, truely fascinating.

I'd personally say it's worth the risk.

Puffers right at the other end of the size scale, like Mbu's, also seem to have a bad reputation for no reason. Big puffers seem to be so lazy that if there is food hitting the tank that they don't have to work for, they'll just watch the world go by. I had a Mbu living in a fairly big tank stocked with loads of small fish. Didn't have any disappearces in 4 months, and I counted often. shoals would often be dancing around the Mbu, it looked like they thought he was a strange shaped rock.

It's the medium sizes that I've seen, and had friend see, have more problems in community tanks, especially with fin nipping and small fishing getting eaten, especially at night.

Steve

[vyberman]

I have a tank of dwarf puffers.

The only fish i know of that goes with them are ottos. even then you have to make sure the puffers are well fed or they will attack the ottos.

I did keep armano shrimp with them for a time. they were absolutly fine for a while.
But then i added some plants which must have had something on them.
Everything else in the tank was fine, but the shrimp tried to get out of the water. within a few hours they were laying on the bottom of the tank.

So i fished them out thinking they were dead. but i noticed their mouths were moving so i placed them in my community tank. Within 20 minutes they were fine.
However i had a rouge danio in there that kept having a pop at them. I tried to catch them but this took a coule of days to get them out, once i did i placed them back in with the puffers. (after a few big water changes)

That didnt go at all well. The next morning they were laying on the bottom of the tank with no eyes and all sorts of other bits missing.

The bottom line is that once the puffers get a taste for their tank mates they will keep taking chunks out of them...regardless of their size! (they try to bite my fingers somtimes, which is funny :))

Having said all of this, if you want to keep them then it wont cost much to get a tank sorted. My puffer tank is 18", about 30L

Its better to have a fair few of them, as in small numbers one will usually get bullied to death.
Its also essential to have the tank well planted so they can have their own spot and keep out of each others way, otherwise they will fight.
And you have to give them a regular supply of live foods. blood worms, daphnia, and snails harvested from my other tanks.

I have 7 in my tank with 7 ottos. They are very amusing, they eat out of my hands and each of them seems to have thier own personality traits.
I can sit and watch them for endless hours.

But i wouldnt dream of keeping them with my discus, not for a moment.