Pea Puffers (Let's Learn Fish)

Pea or Dwarf puffers: I have had some experience with these fish, and let me just say, it wasn't good. Pea puffers are the smallest puffer, and live in freshwater ONLY environments. They are modestly difficult to take care of, and are very smart. Pea puffers, while cute, are extremely aggressive, and my little group bullied each other to death, even in a tank with ample size.
Due to this fact, good tank mates are hard to come by. Heavily armored plecos are probably the best tank mates for these fish.
Pea puffers should be kept in decently sized group. An individual will possibly become bored, and get sick or not be as active. Two puffers will be very aggressive towards each other, gender differences included. Three puffers might work if you have one male and two females. It will be up to you (the buyer) to figure out how many you can keep in your specific tank.
Female pea puffers usually have more defined coloration, males have a more muted brown tint. Most noticeably, males develop a dark black line down their bellies when threatened by an aggressor. There are a few other was to find out the gender of your puffers.
Puffers, being unusual fish, need unusual food. Blood worm are a must, as puffers are very picky about food sources. I have had a little success with feeding freeze dried blood worms, although for some reason only the females will eat it. Snails are also a must, as the tough shells wear down their beaks (which can grow to long and prevent eating), and are a favorite food of puffers. Some sites are very stringent about the size of the snails (only the smallest ones), but my puffers ate any type of snail, no matter the size. Overall, these little puffers make great pets for someone who has had experience with fish, and wants to try something a little more exotic. Puffers make great snail control, and feeding over vacation just involves dumping a bunch of little snails in their tank. If you can handle the aggressive nature of these fish, and their bizarre food requirements, go ahead and try them. They can be kept in tanks no smaller than 10 gallons, as they produce quite a bit of waste for their size.

LFS means local fish store. These are not my fish, even though i have kept puffers in the past.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• pea
• puffers
• dwarf
• small
• fish
• tank
• aquarium
• store

[SpiderDriver2456]

Ok that's bullshit I have one pea puffer in a five gallon tank and he is not lonely at all when I got him at the pet store he was more than happy to be alone

[Arvenohx]

@SpiderDriver2456 There are always exceptions. However, in my experience any lone puffers I've had don't do as well as when they are in a group.

[Vereteno]

I keep my 2 little ones in a 5.5 gallon tank with 4 Stiphodon gobies, 3 Amano shrimp and 3 Red Cherry shrimp (I removed ghost shrimp, the only creature to get in fight with pea puffers in my tank) and I didn't have any aggression accidents. Take a look at my videos.

[Arvenohx]

@Vereteno That's very interesting. While your tank looks very good, and your puffers seem to get along well, I'd say it's more the exception than the rule. I've talked with some people who have also kept pea puffers and they've almost unanimously said that the pea puffers have not gotten along well with anything else.

[creativediabolo]

what are your temprature in the aq.?

how many pea´s are you have in this tank?

[Arvenohx]

@creativediabolo I had these a while ago. I think the temp was around....78 degrees F? I think I had three puffers, though I might have had more.

[haecklers]

We put our pair of pea puffers with zebra danios, red cherry shrimp, kuhli loaches, and guppies. They all got along great but somebody killed one of the cherry shrimp and they all ate it overnight. My guess is the puffers killed it because the other fish were with the cherry shrimp for months and they never killed one that I saw.

[raho2005]

I got 3 of those cute monsters a few months ago, and i love em...

1 male and 2 females in a 15 gallons (54 liters) tank with Amano Shrips, no aggression seen so far...

Didn't had fish before, but i prepared for them and startet a snail breeding tank weeks before i got them.... ;)

They even love dried red mosquito larvae!!

[CamCool10]

When I first got these guys, I got 6 for my 4 gallon tank, yeah I know it was small, 2 of them got killed (well they was unhealthy when I brought them) the other 4 survived until I put them into my 55 gallon tank... They liked the smaller tank better

[LRhiNoK]

Nice tank, check out mine i making it a dwarf puffer tank also

[Arvenohx]

@Vereteno I was able to feed mine freeze dried bloodworms, and they ate it like it was candy. Black worms are good but they do present hazards if they get into the gravel.