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Dwarf Puffer


Zimbaliza

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Hi, 

I'm thinking about getting a "Dwarf Puffer | Carinotetraodon travancoricus from hollywoods for my old 90l tank old Aquaone,

I was thinking about harvesting snails out of the big tank for the little guy

Questions:

  • How many Puffers? could I have in a little tank 90litre?, (ment to grow to 2 1/2 cm)
  • How many snails? would you feed them per day?
  • Even tho they are stated as Freshwater, would they be Brackish??
  • I currently have a 1400l/h canister filter + trickle filter on the Aquaone, (not sure if that would be overkill for the little guy)
  • should I just unleash the little monster into the big tank? (full of tetras/corys), and he can probably live of snails for the rest of his life!

Thanks

Chris

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- Looking at my 90L, I'd go for about 5-7 Dwarf Puffers (erring on the side of caution, possibly 5)

- As many as they'll eat :P They typically graze on snails so won't bloat themselves (I've only seen bloat in a puffer once, and he somehow ate sand, not snails). It's an awful lot of snails to produce, so if you have spare room for a bin to do something like Blackworms as another staple, and white worms as a treat, that will help produce feed for them also.

- Nope, purely freshwater. They are found in the Pamba River, Chalakudy River, Periyar River and Kechery River (according to my list lol), which do eventually connect to the ocean but go reasonably far inland - I believe they're mostly found inland where the water isn't super soft/acidic, but is still relatively tannin-stained and fresh.

- Finding filtration can be a bit tricky for these guys as you want a lot of surface area for biological and mechanical filtration (as they're messy fish) but you also want low flow. Fortunately the flow on the AquaOnes can be turned down relatively easily so I'd say a canister + Trickle is a good option (if you can reduce the flow you're pretty much good to go re filtration).

- Unfortunately he'll also unleash himself to the tetras and cories (may not kill them right away, but he will most likely eventually try) - species only tanks for these guys :P Otocinclus would be the only fish I'd personally put with them. 

 

Hope that helps a bit! 

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got 5 puffers, damn these guys are tiny!!... were in a tank with bumbebees/corys... poor corys were getting nipped... while I was looking at them

Attempted to feed them some frozen bloodworms... yeah they didnt want any of it...

snails however... that is a different story!! just gotta hope the big tank, can provide them with enough snails!! 

I did read somewhere where a guy, doesn't feed his puffers anymore, uses MTS, (which he feeds a shrimp pellet a day) they are ment to out breed the puffers predation

Thanks again for the advise...

 

puffer.jpg

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Nice tank :) 

+1 to everything Alexyay has said :D always best to have a snail supply outside of the tank the puffs are in else they will definitely eat them all.

I had /some/ success with feeding MTS to my puffer-- he would pick at them and maybe be able to eat 1/3 of them before they disappeared. Would not recommend relying on them as a staple diet, particularly since DPFs are sight predators and MTS usually come out more at night when the puffers won't be hunting, whilst during the day they are under the sand so the puffers can't get to them as easily. I'm not sure if you've given them a close inspection before but they're also /very/ /very/ prickly so don't look to be as appetising as, say, pond snails or ramshorns. 

If needed you can teach them to take to frozen bloodworms-- it's not the best food for them, but it's good in a 'just in case' situation such as if you run out of snails/don't have enough time to catch them on a given day. You just need to wiggle it between your fingers (once they're used to your fingers) and once they've eaten a couple they often take onto it. But yeah better as a treat food anyways. 

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Snail harvesting, was pretty low... and they are a pain to get in the big tank....

have found... they go crazy over mozzy's and daphnia, which is probably pissing off my tetras in the other tank!! am surprised, damn, they can move fast if they want to chase down something!

heres a couple of pic's... don't think they had come across daphnia before...they were a bit slow,  after they got a taste... damn... they are on a full hunt....

 

 

 

puffer1.JPG

puffer2.JPG

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