Pea Puffer

[Zac]

I’m thinking of getting a pea puffer for my last fish in my 29 gallon. I have 5 lemon tetras, 8 ember tetras, 7 king blue tetras, 4 Pygmy corys, a clown pleco, and a cockatoo cichlid. It’s a decently decorated tank with a heavily planted side and then a bit more of an open side. I know they won’t bother the tetras but what about the cichlid? Also, how can I make sure he gets food from the faster moving fish? I was thinking of feeding flake food first to the other fish and then throwing in a little bit of brine shrimp or blood worms after for the puffer.

[JettsPapa]

My experience with pea puffers is limited to two of them that were given to me six months or so ago that I put in my similarly planted 40 gallon breeder tank, with pearl gouramis, serpae tetras, pristella tetras, and Corydoras trilineatus.  I feed blood worms occasionally.  One of them will eat one occasionally, and the other one never has.  They both seem healthy, but since half of the tank is a mass of guppy grass that's loaded with snails and shrimp I assume they get plenty to eat.

I haven't noticed mine bother any of the other fish at all, but I understand that they often do.  Apparently they're similar to bettas and some species of gouramis; some will tolerate tank mates just fine and others will kill anything else in the tank.

[Leo2o915]

On 11/11/2021 at 7:58 AM, Zac said:

I’m thinking of getting a pea puffer for my last fish in my 29 gallon. I have 5 lemon tetras, 8 ember tetras, 7 king blue tetras, 4 Pygmy corys, a clown pleco, and a cockatoo cichlid. It’s a decently decorated tank with a heavily planted side and then a bit more of an open side. I know they won’t bother the tetras but what about the cichlid? Also, how can I make sure he gets food from the faster moving fish? I was thinking of feeding flake food first to the other fish and then throwing in a little bit of brine shrimp or blood worms after for the puffer.

If it’s heavily planted you should be good but they are predators if you have shrimp and snails it will eat them 

[Zac]

On 11/11/2021 at 3:22 PM, Leo2o915 said:

If it’s heavily planted you should be good but they are predators if you have shrimp and snails it will eat them 

Yeah I have a quarantine tank with shrimp in it so I might have to skip quarantine. They’re fake plants too but I’m slowly exchanging them with live plants. I just want to make sure the fast fish don’t out compete it for food and that it won’t nip at my cichlid 

[Leo2o915]

On 11/11/2021 at 1:31 PM, Zac said:

Yeah I have a quarantine tank with shrimp in it so I might have to skip quarantine. They’re fake plants too but I’m slowly exchanging them with live plants. I just want to make sure the fast fish don’t out compete it for food and that it won’t nip at my cichlid 

Do you have snails in that tank ? 

[Zac]

On 11/11/2021 at 4:34 PM, Leo2o915 said:

Do you have snails in that tank ? 

Nope no snails. My main concern is that they will overpopulate. Are there species that a puffer could keep in check?

[Leo2o915]

On 11/11/2021 at 1:42 PM, Zac said:

Nope no snails. My main concern is that they will overpopulate. Are there species that a puffer could keep in check?

Pretty much any snail they would go to town go with either pond or Ramshorn 

[Zac]

On 11/11/2021 at 6:45 PM, Leo2o915 said:

Pretty much any snail they would go to town go with either pond or Ramshorn 

Cool. This is my setup. Would this be okay for 1 puffer?

[Leo2o915]

On 11/11/2021 at 6:59 PM, Zac said:

Cool. This is my setup. Would this be okay for 1 puffer?

Yeah should be good like I said puffers are different you don’t know How he would act 

[Colu]

I would setup a 5 gallon tank to keep a snail colony going with bladder snails or Ramshorns so you have a ready supply of food on hand before getting your pea puffers

[Jennifer V]

On 11/11/2021 at 9:37 PM, Colu said:

I would setup a 5 gallon tank to keep a snail colony going with bladder snails or Ramshorns so you have a ready supply of food on hand before getting your pea puffers

Excellent idea! I did exactly that for my puffers. 

@Zac pea puffers are tricky little fish with a great deal of requirements to keep them happy and healthy. There is a Facebook group called Pea Puffer Enthusiasts Worldwide that I would check out before you get yours. It's extremely helpful and will give you everything you need to know to keep them. I wish I had known about it before I got my sweet little puffies because I've made a lot of mistakes that could've been avoided had I found the group sooner. 

[eatyourpeas]

On 11/11/2021 at 3:45 PM, Leo2o915 said:

Pretty much any snail they would go to town go with either pond or Ramshorn 

Having snails will ensure the pea puffer gets his meal without anyone else fighting for it. 🐡

Mine won't eat any frozen food, only live food. Be prepared, they can be picky eaters.

[Odd Duck]

Ah, pea puffers!  I love them and they make me crazy!

I’m not a big fan of keeping them solitary.  They are a shoaling species, so a group seems to be best for their mental health and stability.  Check my signature link for Bad Pea Daddy’s story.  It absolutely is possible to keep them as solitary peas, but you never know if you’re going to get one that will be OK with other fish, or not.  They are well known for nipping other fish and it’s been documented that other fish in the wild with them will have puffer nips out of their fins and bits of fish fin have been documented from their stomachs (I wish I had saved a link to that study!).

So, you’re definitely taking your chances and need to have a back up plan if you decide to try a solitary puffer.  If you decide to get a puffer, you really need to at least have a bladder and/or ramshorn culture(s) going strong first!  Or steady availability of other live foods.  A constant diet of only frozen blood worms is a guaranteed slow, lingering death.  Most adore whiteworms, blackworms, Daphnia/Moina, or other live foods.  They’ll do best with a good variety of live foods.

[Sandra the fish rookie]

For my pea puffer (Gazoo), I have a 2.5 gallon just for snails.. it has a sponge filter and little heater and some live plants. Its lovingly known as "Gazoo's lunch box" 🙂.