Pea Puffer questions?

Never housed them. Was thinking about throwing one in a 30g with Killifish. Tank is full of snails. Thoughts?

I also have a large planted tank with South American dwarf cichlids. Could I house a Dwarf puffer with them? Thoughts?

In reading I've read there are OTHER small/dwarf puffers but didn't elaborate on species. Any input on this? 

Anyone hear about a "dragon puffer" (dragon face, eyes, dragon something puffer)? 

Any input participated!

They eat parts of a snail and move on to the next one. Be ready to pull half eaten rotting snails. Puffers also like to bite anything flowy. They might take bites of killi fins.

PvtPain66k wrote:They eat parts of a snail and move on to the next one. Be ready to pull half eaten rotting snails. Puffers also like to bite anything flowy. They might take bites of killi fins.

Definitely not good. I won't risk damage to killi. Thanks PvtPain66k!

I have about a dozen pea puffers for my wife. They're with some endlers, a female betta, and pair of smaller Pelvicachromis - no problems with nipping. They have fought amongst themselves when a dominant male was taking over but other than that, very docile if you ask me. They eat snails and I give them blackworms to supplement.

I was thinking about putting 1 in a well planted 30 g. Was hoping it might help with a snail population in there. The tank has 2 pair of Killifish, 4 Cory cats, and a couple Otto cats. Its sounds doable, but dont want harm to come to the other inhabitants. I was thinking about putting 1 in a 9.5 g for a while. Its a newer setup with 4 neon tetra. Perhaps that tank may be a good place to start.

You will be fine as long as its more than 20 gal Planted and you have semi aggro fish. Unlike me all i had was guppy and platy on a 10 gal   so i separated my 2 puffers with a temporary fish breeding box. Both are gone now. Wes Rehomed them. And they only eat live food. Picky on temp. I had them once on room temp. when it was still cool around 60F and what happen was they curled up and froze like they're dead.

It's also be fine with 9.5 with tetras...

I'd recommend the 9.5, but it's not like if you had problems with one in your 30 you couldn't fish it out. And if you have problems with puffer bites, you'll know. Their crazy little hamster teeth leave a distinctly different bite than other fish. As long as they're not really trying to kill something, or fighting for dominance, you'll notice nipping before any real damage is done.

PvtPain66k wrote:I'd recommend the 9.5, but it's not like if you had problems with one in your 30 you couldn't fish it out. And if you have problems with puffer bites, you'll know. Their crazy little hamster teeth leave a distinctly different bite than other fish. As long as they're not really trying to kill something, or fighting for dominance, you'll notice nipping before any real damage is done.

My 30 gallon is becoming slightly overran with snails. Little huggers about the size of a BB everywhere. Do you think 1 little freshwater puffer will help keep the snails in check?

My 30 gallon is becoming slightly overran with snails. Little huggers about the size of a BB everywhere. Do you think 1 little freshwater puffer will help keep the snails in check?

Assassin snails will take care of those.

SiRWesDragon wrote:

My 30 gallon is becoming slightly overran with snails. Little huggers about the size of a BB everywhere. Do you think 1 little freshwater puffer will help keep the snails in check?

Assassin snails will take care of those.

Forgot about those, I think they would work good in this tank. There's no Mystery Snails in the 30g. Thanks!

I did go to Bridges pet tonight. I know they had a couple dwarf freshwater puffers ($4 ea). Tank was QT and the puffers fins clamped shut  I try to stay away from Bridges pet lately. Super expensive for the most part & not a GSAS sponsor  

theChad wrote:My 30 gallon is becoming slightly overran with snails. Little huggers about the size of a BB everywhere. Do you think 1 little freshwater puffer will help keep the snails in check?

My experience with puffers was that they would go through and meticulously eats all of the snails' faces, leaving stuff in the shells to rot, unless you GIVE them a set number of snails per day. I had one in a 7G column for a year before moving him around. After he demolished all the snails and left half of each of them rotting, I rationed him to ensure he wouldn't kill one where I couldn't see it, and just leave it there.

PvtPain66k wrote:

theChad wrote:My 30 gallon is becoming slightly overran with snails. Little huggers about the size of a BB everywhere. Do you think 1 little freshwater puffer will help keep the snails in check?

My experience with puffers was that they would go through and meticulously eats all of the snails' faces, leaving stuff in the shells to rot, unless you GIVE them a set number of snails per day. I had one in a 7G column for a year before moving him around. After he demolished all the snails and left half of each of them rotting, I rationed him to ensure he wouldn't kill one where I couldn't see it, and just leave it there.

So technically the fish could leave the water a brewing cesspool of rotting snail meat  
That's a detail I could possibly overlook. I appreciate you throwing that out there.

Okay so, I picked up 3 fat healthy Pea Puffers from my favorite LFS [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] & put them in my 30g plant grow out tank. Tank was beginning to be overran with these tiny baby snails. 2 days later I only see maybe 3-4 of these micro snail babies left in the tank. I am totally amazed. I mean every leaf in this tank was peppered with snails!

Now chad you will need to breed snails or feed them live blood or black worms.

SiRWesDragon wrote:Now chad you will need to breed snails or feed them live blood or black worms.

Roger that! Blood worms are a staple in 99% of all my pets diets. The Puffers where eating bloodworms too, that's another reason I was amazed to see so many snails GONE in such a short period of time. I also pick up live black worms when I can. Fish go crazy for them...

Is it weird that I wanna hug you for saying "my pets" not "my fish"?  
Now you have to over feed another tank, just enough that you get a few nice fat healthy snails to throw to the puffers every now and then. They'll go f-ing crazy over a snail when they haven't seen one in a while. It's awesome to watch. ^___^

Cool, I have a large colony of trumpet snails in my 140 planted. There are rams horns here & there in that tank as well. This should be okay to throw to the puffers a couple times a week?