Anyone kept Dwarf Puffers

[TonyK]

I have a spare 5 gallon tank and thought about a Dwarf Puffer. Has anyone kept them?

[kathstew]

vaygirl has 1 i believe, ask her! ^_^
i'd love one one day, but my LFS dont sell them :(

[diablo13]

I haven't kept them, but I've been interested in them, I've had several conversations with Vaygirl and have done research. What do you want to know?

[BettaMiah]

1 Dwarf Puffer would be awesome in that tank. Males can be agressive though so only 1.

They are spunky, sweet, and very cute little fish.

[vette91]

I had one for a couple of months. He didn't tolerate my hard water and the water pillows I used weren't very effective. I believe they are supposed to be kept in brackish water. I fed mine freeze dried shrimp and I would put snails in his tank that he loved.
But, I wouldn't take my word on all this information because obviously I failed.

[TonyK]

This is what I have learned about them just seeing if it sounds right. I plan on 1 in a 5 gallon. Tank needs to be heavily plant (fake, real). Mostly eat bloodworms (live,frozen), brine? or any sort of frozen foods, no pellets or flake and snails. They are a freshwater puffer and should be in an established cycled tank.

How does this sound?

[vaygirl]

That pretty much covers it. I'll add that their real diet is snails. They LOVE snails. But they're sometimes hard to keep in the puffer's tank because he will eat until every snail is gone. I keep a population of snails (pond snails) in all my other fish tanks and then drop in a few every week for a treat. Mine does fine on bloodworms. Sometimes I can get him to eat a mysis shrimp.

People have trouble getting them on bloodworms sometimes so I'll just tell you how I did it. Pick a spot in the tank to leave the worms. I used a depression in one of my driftwood pieces, but I thought I could have used a plastic lid from a bottle. Use tweezers to leave the worms in the same place every day. This way you can monitor if he's eating them or not. Once the puffer IS eating them, he'll come to that spot when you're putting them in. Mine started taking them straight off the tweezers but you can also drop them in for him to hunt. They spend most of the day hunting in the plants for snails. They'll find em.

Puffers are SUPER fun!!! Here's a video of mine eating worms like spaghetti....
http://www.youtube.com/user/vaygirl?.../0/0mJ8JfSv74Q

Also you can click on the tank link below to see Huey's tank.

Edit- They are totally freshwater