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I just checked the fish store and they have Pea Puffer fish for sale. Does anyone have any of these fish? I also found out that these fish love to eat snails. So if snails are running amock in your tank maybe this is a way to eradicate them/:'

Here fishy... fishy.. Here fishy... fishy...

Pea puffer is another common name for the Dwarf puffer (Carinotetraodon travancoricus) see here. http://www.fishprofiles.com/files/profiles/429.htm

The odd specimen is peaceful but the average specimen is hell on wheels for such a tiny fish. It certainly will eradicate snail troubles but can come with a whole new set of troubles in a community aquarium. It will maim other fish, and kill small ones, its only a question of time.They are territorial with each other too, and if you have several of them you will need a bigger tank than you might imagine.

Frankly Id choose almost any other fish over this one for eradicating snails in a community setting. They are however a great little fish in a species specific tank.

Longhair is right, I have kept these little guys in a 20 gallon and they killed 2 cherry barbs and 1 cory. But I found in a 20 gallon they were alright with each other. Loaches are good ay taking care of snails, but not clown loaches, unless you have a huge tank.

Dwarf puffers are freshwater fish, suitable ONLY for
species only tanks. You must keep only 1 male in a tank, 2 will kill each other.
They can and will kill most other tankmates, hence why they should be kept with only other dwarf puffers.
I have heard they tend to ignore oto cats most times, but have also heard of them bumping off otos too.
I wouldnt change it.
A 5g tank would be suitable for a m/f pair, 10g for a colony of 1 male to 3-5 females.

They will eat snails, shrimps, anything thats invertbrate, including big apple snails.

I agree with longhair, they arent a fish for a community tank at all. There are many other kinds of fish that eat snails, including loaches, and loaches range in size from the small sidthimunki at only 2 inches at maturity, up to the massive clown at 1 foot at maturity and everything in between. A much better fish for the community tank.


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I guess since I am not ready to keep making trips to the fish store to buy new fish and I am also not ready to set up another tank; I am going to stick with my peaceful community tank.

I appreciate your help in making a decision. I thought that the fish were really different, and I never thought that they could put so much stress on the other tank mates.

This definetly is not the fish for me...

Here fishy... fishy.. Here fishy... fishy...

I have 6 pea puffers in my 55gal and I have no problems with fin nipping on each other or the the fish. They do require you to feed them frozen food. (Trips to LFS)I use blood worm. They are a good snail control. I read a profile on them that says that they are non-aggressive (at least not any more than anyother fish) because of their size. I enjoy watching them enteract with each other. They are not aggressive in my tank and others I have talk to have told me te same. The other thing is they are small enough for Micro Tanks. I have a friend who has three of them in his desk tank with two mini-corys with a a single plant. I think they are more aggressive to each other, than anyone else

Dj Richie Rich
"Don't Panic"

Here the site I got mine from, This place is great by the, price matching, great customer service, will take the time to discuss thins with you.

http://www.petsolutions.com/Default.aspx?ItemID=57040

Djrichie
"So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish" Douglas Adams

Richie, trust me good buddy, its just a matter of time. Mine were fine with other fish for two years, then they just kicked off out of the blue and started fin nipping and killing otto's!

I really cant express this enough, there are lots of people who say its fine to keep them in community , and then six months or a year later you ask them how things are going in that tank, and they kinda answer you in hushed voices while avoiding your gaze, and you get the muffled admission " they started killing everything".

Its like groundhog day , its a situation that repeats itself over and over , the believers telling the disbelievers and the disbelievers not believing them. I was a disbeliever once too.

(I shall start a help group for those suffering from the crushing guilt of dwarf puffer in community ownership .lol ...... If you have been affected by any of the issues call 0800 blah blah blah.) lol.

It may take years but dwarf puffers kill at least 1 tankmate in their life probably 99.9% of the time. Everytime someone says my puffers are fine all the people that have been there start holding their breath. It's practically guranteed that something bad will happen eventually. They may be fine for years and then 1 day you wake up to a tank full of dead fish except for the puffers swimming about with complete contentment over their now spacious uncrowded home.

I did some research and it mentioned that as puffer fish grow and reach adulthood they become very aggressive especially around mating time... but them I guess alot of fish become agressive then

Here fishy... fishy.. Here fishy... fishy...

not just fish - i guess you don't go out to night clubs much.....LOL

Djrichie
"So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish" Douglas Adams

Tina, that may have something to do with it, but I suspect the primary reason DP's take a while to start killing things is actually more to do with food recognition issues.

They are famed for it, and breeders are equally famous for giving them a monotypic diet. Some people have trouble getting them to take a variety of foods thanks to bad breeding practises, and its a fairly regular thing that some people can only get them to take brineshrimp (often what they are raised on) an nothing else. Basically a little fish like a DP often lacks the wit to try new things, and often they dont realise the other fish around them are a potential foodsource. Sooner or later though, and I notice particularly if a fish is injured in the tank and they smell blood, everything suddenly dawns on them. When mine first learned to take snails, only one figured it out , but the minute he did, the others all learned by watching in less than an hour.

I was lucky enough (or unlucky enough depending on your point of view) to see a fight break out between tetras during a mornin feed. An injury was inflicted to a gill edge and you could see a tiny , tiny oily blood slick in the water appear. That very second, my first ever dwarf puffer started to ignore the bloodworm and zero in on the fish with the wound, and stare at it, keeping a constant one inch distance from the tetra. You could almost hear the clockwork ticking. The puffer bit, and the tetra ran for it, with a slightly enlarged gill wound. I watched them for a while and it seemed over. Went to work.

Came back, a neon tetra had no tail, the black neon had bled to death and an ottocinclus looked like a peeled orange on the gravel. All 10 puffers had watched and learned. I watched them hunting like miniature packs of dogs teasing at the other fish with small wounds while I grabbed the equipment and bags to get fish out of there.

It starts with an incident, possibly territorial, but as I have witnessed all it takes is an accidental wound. Then they learn off each other in minutes.

All that - wow

I know I should beleave what you say and sell them off to LFS but they haven't done anything wrong yet. more research must be Done

Dj Richie Rich
"Don't Panic"

Djrichie
"So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish" Douglas Adams

In a 55 you'll probably have time to seperate them if they do start nipping, and hopefully before something dies.At least in a 55 the other fish arent easily cornered, but if you start seeing bits missing from fins, youll know what you have to do.

DP's can be trained to accept other foods, I was able to get mine to eat snails and ghost shrimp. He never took to flake, and only took to bloodworms one time. I think they enjoy the hunt more than the food itself.
They really seem to be a species only fish, unless you want to give them feeders. I have seen them take bites out of fish far larger than them.

Good luck with what ever direction you take.

"There is also a Clown Pleco in this tank some where. I am telling you, HE IS IN HERE."