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I know very little about them, but my LFS has a ton of them and they are absolutely adorable!

I was wondering what their requirements are? tank size, water conditions, etc... they are full FW right? not brackish? or what? are they compatible with other fish? I have heard they are not hugely agressive.

I was thinking maybe one could go in my 20 gallon perhaps? I have 3 yo yo loaches in there, which stick to the bottom and around the driftwood so they would probably be out of the way, and I have 2 boesmani rainbows and intend to add 1 more. I figure the rainbows are very boisterous and i sincerely doubt they would let ANYBODY pick on them...

so would this be a potential match? or is the tank way too small? or what?

Unfortunately, that really wouldn't be the best match. You can go to http://www.pufferlist.net]http://www.pufferlist.net[/link], click on Tetraodon biocellatus for some basic care information. Also, check out [link=this article on them, it is an excellent article by a man who has been keeping puffers for over 40 years, and his longest lived Figure 8 lived 18 years!

General comments though, they are brackish, they seem to do best at a specific gravity of 1.005-1.008. You could definitely keep one in a 20 gallon, but not with the current tankmates. Check out the article and site, they should answer your questions!

OK, thanks, I was thinking of moving the yo yo's to a different tank, but i like the rainbows too much and dont have anywhere to move them to. i will probably just add some more rainbows to the tank, perhaps a different species (small). but I might go with dwarf puffers in my 5 gallon.

do you think the dwarfs and figure 8s have similar personalities?

how many could you put in a 20 gallon with no other type of fish in there

Boes grow too large for 20 gallon and are not brackish water suitable.

You could keep 2 F8s in a 20g. Dwarves are a bit more nippy than F8s.

do dwarf puffers prefer sand or could i use a flourite substrate?

and if i need to use sand, what should i do to keep pockets of algae from forming in the sand......would an UGF help this?

I wouldn't bother w/sand. Gravel/flourite is fine.

I have 2 figure 8 puffers that are doing great in a 55 gallon fresh water community tank, they are allot of fun to hand feed and just to watch.

Figure 8s require brackish water. Their lifespan is usually at least half as long if kept in freshwater. They also would need around a 30g minimum tank size and all puffers are nippy or outright agressive. As far as puffers go figure 8s are somewhere around the middle for agressiveness and not a good tankmate for most fish.

Dwarf puffers are 100% freshwater and dislike salt. They are best kept in a tank with only other dwarf puffers and possibly some bottom feeders because they will often nip at and eventually kill other tankmates. They are one of the more peaceful puffers though. Some people have had luck with otos or plecos in the tank but on the other hand they may get along for several years before one day you find all the otos(or other tankmates) dead. Puffers also are rather picky slow feeders and faster fish like tetras or other schoolers will get all the food. Most will only eat live or frozen foods and sometimes you have to spend a week feeding them mostly live(pest snails work) before they'll even take frozen. They do best as a trio or more(1 puffer may not be willing to feed) in a 10g or larger tank. Decorate heavily with rock, plants, fake plants, and any other aquarium safe decorations. That cuts down on agression and makes them bolder when swimming around and feeding.

Holy old thread, Batman!

Yukon Mike, this thread is at least a year old (likely much longer, because 26-Jan 2006 was the date of our last site upgrade and all the old threads imported have that date for every post). As such, I'm pretty sure any issues that devon7 has had with them thus far have sorted themselves out in one fashion or another.

Joe Potato