FishProfiles.com Message Forums

Ok these dwarf puffers are driving me crazy...

First I bought 2 and 1 mysteriously disappeared. Then I bought 3 more bringing the total to 4. They were fine for about a week when I found one who got beat up by the others and was in so much pain and couldnt of recovered so i euthanized him. Today I find another dead one!

Now I have 2 left and I don't know whats wrong. I dried to break the tank up into as many territories as possible. here is a picture of it:

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y195/Silentfire14/DSCN0267.jpg

Is it just me or does everyone else have these problems also?


Edit: Ahh yes I forgot they won't eat 3 kinds of frozen food I got for them: daphnia, brineshrimp, and bloodworms, well sometimes they nibble on a bloodworm. I have to catch them live mosquito larvae.

Is there anything I can do to improve the situation?


Last edited by Ethan14 at 17-Aug-2005 20:35

They need alot more plants. They get bored easy and it's more difficult to have territories. Can you post a pic of them?


Kim

correct me if i am wrong, but isnt shellfish and snails a staple in their diet? and majority are brackish so keep that in mind, also they are territorial.. what size tank do you have them in?

72 gallon bowfront:Tanganyikan Lake set up
75 gallon: A. Baenschi trio,Cyanotilapia Afra Cobwe(4), copadichromis trewavase, protomelas sp. tangerine tiger(breeding pair)

they are dwarf puffers so they are freshwater. they do like snails which i have fed them but they also are SUPPOSED to eat frozen insect foods and brine shrimp. I have them in a 10 gallon and the rule for dwarf puffers is 1 puffer for every 2-3 gallons.

I'll try to get a picture of the puffers

Make sure that you have enough water movement in the tank. The puffers will eat the frozen foods if they are moving, also make sure the snails you feed are small enough so the puffers also eat the shells, I kept a small 1 gal with snails so I could make sure I always had small snails ready for my puffers.

I don't have any dwarf puffers but i have asked questions about them before. I hear that they like lots of hiding places because they are such aggressive nippers or in you case killers. More plants would help but maybe just some more caves, with little holes for them to hide. As fas as food, have you tried Betta pellets? You might have better luck with the different texture. Like I said I am not an expert but just some suggestions.
Good luck!


MONKEYS ARE COOL, BUT SEA-MONKEYS ARE BETTER.

Ok i TRIED to take some pictures but they are horrible, and my camera has almost no zoom so here they are:

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y195/Silentfire14/DSCN0288.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y195/Silentfire14/DSCN0286.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y195/Silentfire14/DSCN0293.jpg

i will try using more plants and caves

thanks for the help!

Last edited by Ethan14 at 17-Aug-2005 22:32

The most I would keep in a 10g is 3-4 and only with plenty of hiding places. Alot more than you have. In anything less than 10g only keep 2. Especially if you have a male and female. It could be you had 3 males and 1 female that resulted in a fight.
To train them to eat frozen hold a bloodworm in a pair of tweezers and wiggle it in front of them. Occasionally dwarf puffers never learn to eat frozen food and require live snails constantly and things like mosquito larvae. Brine shrimp are not a good diet for puffers. Most people I talked to on the puffer forum have a small pest snail breeding tank either in the stand under the puffer tank or next to it.

You might have all males which could be your problem. I was only able to download the last two pics. The only puff I saw looked like a male. Can you describe their markings?
www.dwarfpuffers.com

Kim

Last edited by Kim at 18-Aug-2005 10:36

Last edited by Kim at 18-Aug-2005 10:37

It's not letting me edit my post, so I'll try again

go to www.dwarfpuffers.com


Kim

http://null

hi, sounds like the usual problems you can get with dwarf puffers- see the thread i wrote in one of other questions above yours in the forums for some solutions. (cant miss the size of the entry lol.)

The tank in which i keep my puffers probably has 9 or 10 times the biomass of plants that yours does in proportion to the size of the tank, its also about 20 gal bigger. This is probably the only reason my puffers live peaceably and yours dont.

In additon, rarely do puffers overfeed, typically they stop eating once the belly is full, so slight underfeeding can be a cause of aggression and theres no need to risk it- give em as much as they can eat twice a day. A puffers belly is very visible, so you know when it will have eaten its fill.

Last edited by longhairedgit at 27-Aug-2005 02:42

Yes, mine seem to dislike the frozen bloodworms as well, but when I put them in the current and they move around, individual worms breaking off and such the dps pay alot more attention to them and will munch a few. I take the cubes from the package and make about 8 cubes from each one, since the dps don't eat too much. They thaw much quicker too. If you just toss them in whole and they stay in a cube the fish will just ignore them. Also, most lfs wil be happy to throw a few of the pest snails from their tanks into a bag for you, I do this on occasion for mine.
As for the plants, decorations... use as many as will fit into your tank, break up their line of sight and give plenty of hiding spots.

If you take the plants out of the baskets they will grow so much better, and spread throught the tank.

yeah, i noticed the thing about moving foods too- they often go for bloodworm free floating in the current , but ignore the stuff that hits the bottom, even when they see snails you can see them looking for signs of movement before attacking. A small plastic feeding dish with holes in (like the ones they used to sell for goldfish) placed near the top of the tank would release the bloodworm more slowly and prevent the cube from sinking when it defrosts, so you could cut back on waste by using one.

Does anyone elses puffers just suck the middle out of bloodworm and spit out the outer skin? I have to say its fascinating to watch- its the equivalent of a human trying to tie a cherry stalk into a knot with their tongue. Clever stuff.

Last edited by longhairedgit at 02-Sep-2005 23:29

Last edited by longhairedgit at 02-Sep-2005 23:37