Red Eye Puffer & Pea Puffer Questions

[Kilrkitty08]

Hello Everyone, 

    A few questions about red eye puffers, I currently purchased three which I thought were females turned out to be males.  They seem to get along fairly well except the largest one defends an area of the tank but observation is in progress at this point.  I have several sight line breaks with plants / decor and they do not "chase" each other just flare and run off.  Is it possible to place a red eye puffer into a tetra community tank or with an angelfish, corycats and kuli loaches?    

       I have watched Cory's Puffer talk so many times and I purchased General Cure to 'deworm' them, should I give them more time to settle into their tank or should I dose them now, I've had them for three days?  My LFS said they never medicate their fish for anything and didn't really know anything about the puffers except they ordered them and got them in.    

       Also, I've had my pea puffer tank going for 7 months and never dewormed them, is it too late or should I go ahead?  I've not observed any signs of internal parasites with them and they came from Aqua Huna but I know the video recommended it because puffers are usually wild caught.

    Also, can I add ember tetras to my Red Eye puffer tank as a dither fish?  In my Pea Puffer tank I have 7 neon tetras and a bristle nose pleco which had worked out amazingly well and I was wanting to recreate something like that with the Red Eye Puffer tank.  I am currently growing a baby bristlenose up (so cute) ❤️ which I will add once he or she is large enough. 

    If you haven't seen the puffer talk video I will link it below it is one of my favorites and I feel like even if you don't have puffers you will enjoy it.  My favorite part is "Cucumbers are bad because they kill people (perspective point) 🤣 , I think everyone will laugh at some point during this talk worth a watch.  

 

[eatyourpeas]

It all depends. What size tank do they share? Also, I think it depends on their personality. I have a pea puffer that has killed everyone in his tank, and as he gets older he has gotten more impatient with roommates. I have another pea puffer in a different tank that shares the space with a Nerite, Amano and Neocaridina shrimps, and shows no aggression at all. 

Also, I have had the puffer for a year and did not do deworming. At the time, I did not know it was a “thing to do” and now I feel they have been healthy so why stress them.

Like Bettas, I think observing them will give you a sense as to whether they are open to sharing with other fish.

Edited October 1, 2021 by eatyourpeas

[Odd Duck]

I will post only about the pea puffers since I have zero expertise on red eyes.

If you haven’t seen any signs of issues, you probably don’t need to worry about deworming now.  You still can deworm in the tank if you decide you want to, just be aware the dewormer can harm detritus worms and if there are enough of those, it could cause a tank to crash.  Not terribly likely to have too many detritus worms with pea puffers in the tank.

You do have to be very careful about adding inhabitants in with pea puffers.  They are notoriously bad to other fish, shrimp, etc.  I have a shoal of 8 that are getting along better all the time and a lone male that I’m convinced will kill almost anything I put in the tank.  I’ve tried to give him a harem twice and tried to integrate him into a shoal once.  Strike three, so he now lives by himself with some snails he can’t kill and some he can.

I’m curious, how many pea puffers do you have and in what size tank?  How old are they?  I see you’ve had them 7 months, were they tiny when you got them, juveniles, or already adults?

[Kilrkitty08]

@Odd Duck

They were very tiny when I received my pea puffers, we named one tad pole because that's what they all looked like heads with little tails.  I have them in a 20gl high, blessing all three of my pea puffers are female from everything I've read and they get alone with everyone (7 neon tetras that been with them since day 4 and a bristlenose pleco joined after about a month) happy with anyone who isn't a snail and don't have any issues with each other.  I have a lot of decorations and plants, one lives behind a bubble volcano, one stays on the other corner with some drift wood and the third keeps to the middle under a fake tree that looks like an old man 😃 but come together during feed and even share hunting grounds when I put snails in.  I raise rams horn snails in a separate tank to keep them well fed but also offer Omega Carnivore Lovers frozen food about every three days or so.  

When you have a shoal of puffers like that do they behave differently?  Do they keep their own area still or do they enjoy swimming around together the majority of the time?  Have you had them breed?  

I'm hoping I'll have as much enjoyment out of the Red Eye Puffers, I think I will try either Ember Tetras or Rummy Nose Tetras worse case scenario I add the tetras to my tetra tank if they refuse tank mates.    

 

[Odd Duck]

On 10/1/2021 at 3:15 PM, Kilrkitty08 said:

@Odd Duck

They were very tiny when I received my pea puffers, we named one tad pole because that's what they all looked like heads with little tails.  I have them in a 20gl high, blessing all three of my pea puffers are female from everything I've read and they get alone with everyone (7 neon tetras that been with them since day 4 and a bristlenose pleco joined after about a month) happy with anyone who isn't a snail and don't have any issues with each other.  I have a lot of decorations and plants, one lives behind a bubble volcano, one stays on the other corner with some drift wood and the third keeps to the middle under a fake tree that looks like an old man 😃 but come together during feed and even share hunting grounds when I put snails in.  I raise rams horn snails in a separate tank to keep them well fed but also offer Omega Carnivore Lovers frozen food about every three days or so.  

When you have a shoal of puffers like that do they behave differently?  Do they keep their own area still or do they enjoy swimming around together the majority of the time?  Have you had them breed?  

I'm hoping I'll have as much enjoyment out of the Red Eye Puffers, I think I will try either Ember Tetras or Rummy Nose Tetras worse case scenario I add the tetras to my tetra tank if they refuse tank mates.    

 

It’s funny, but I don’t know for sure if they’ve bred or not since the tank is so densely planted.  I haven’t spotted any babies yet in the shoal.  I do have babies, but they’re in the tank that had the “extras” that I took back to my lfs after I selected enough females to complete the shoal.  🤦🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

When I took out the extras to take back, I just left that tank empty for a while.  Next thing I knew, I spotted puffer fry in there.  The most I’ve counted is 9, but it’s a 10 gallon with some fake plants and several sponge filters that are just hanging out so their BB colonies don’t die off completely.  There may be more in there.  I’ll know soon enough as they grow.

Boy puffers are definitely different than girls.  They are quite territorial and may not tolerate each other if they don’t have enough females or total numbers in the shoal plus enough space in the tank to have separate territories.

I do see the girls swimming around in groups and just hanging out, but I’ve got a couple that seem to stay a bit dark and not hang with the group as much.  That’s why I’m going to be switching them to my 29 gallon once the plants have grown in a bit more.

I tried ember tetras in there as dither fish but it didn’t work out well for the tetras.  First one seemed to be missing (hard to consistently count all 10 tetras with such dense planting), then another was missing and now I was sure I was down at least 1 and maybe 2.  Before I could get them out, I was down to 6.  All this in about 4-5 days from my first suspicion of any actually missing vs just didn’t happen to see each one that day.

I also am pretty sure I’m missing some of the Amano shrimp I added to that tank.  I still see at least 1 almost every day and I know they hide well enough I could be seeing a different one or the same one repeatedly, it’s very hard to tell.  I will be adding Amanos to the 29 once it gets more age to it, and I’ll add them before the puffers instead of the other way around this time, so the Amanos have a better chance.

I’m pretty sure I have fewer otos in that tank than I added, also.  I added them first to give them their best shot, and I know I had all of them for quite a long time.  But now I’m only seeing 3 at once.  I removed one when he got in the fish trap and put him in another tank when it became clear the otos weren’t happy in with the peas.  But I haven’t been able to catch the others.  That means I may be down 2 otos from the total that were added.

Once I get the puffers out, I’ll see who shows up out of the woodwork with no more pressure from puffers.  Then I’ll decide if I add more otos to the 20 long or catch whoever is left to move them to the 100 gallon with their other buddy and his 6 new friends.  More likely I’ll try to catch them and move them to the bigger group.  I think they’ll be much happier in there.

Bear in mind, I’ve found no bodies at any point.  Very hard to determine any cause of death with no bodies to examine.  I did find bodies when I was trying to give Bad Pea Daddy his harem.  But that tank wasn’t as densely planted, either.

Puffers can be complicated, for sure.  Males make it more challenging.