Second guessing myself - should I get pea puffers or not.

[Karen B.]

Greetings!

I have been an aquarist for 2 years now but still consider myself rather new in the hobby… and terribly bad.

Not willingly but I seem to be unlucky (I had agressive white cloud minnows when I didn’t even think it was possible, my mexicain orange crayfish ended up killing each other, my guppies had flukes and camallanus, my green neon tetras had an unknown disease I could never identify and cure and lost 3/10, my first betta died within 2 weeks as he choked on a snail, whenever I tried hatching/raising my baby corydoras they would all die but if I leave them alone in the tank they make it - only fish I can reproduce are clown killies and even then, I lose some fry I have yet to understand why-, took me forever to stop losing all my shrimps - now they do not die but the population isn’t growing even if I see berried females…, I have 5 otocinclus I never ever see…-).

Yet, it’s not because I don’t try to be good. I buy the best food I can (even imported extreme food from the US at an astronomical cost, yet none of my fish will eat it), granted I am not the most frequent tester but I do WC weekly or twice a month depending on the tanks (I have 6, some more stocked then other), all live plants, double filter (1 HOB and 1 sponge filter), I use fertilizer, tabs and excel…

One of my dream fish is a pea puffer (the other is an apistogramma). I can have only 1 last tank and it’ a 10 gallons. Considering I am not very good, have the worst of luck with disease, am anxious and easily stressed and don’t lime agression, could I still be able to have few pea puffers? I read they are not for beginners and are a bit more difficult. My idea would be to buy 6 for the 10 gallons so I can all quarantine them together and eventually end up with a good ratio m/f when I can sex them and rehome the others.

Thank you!

[CT_]

Seems like an okay plan.  I think the trick is to make sure there's lots of stuff in the tank for them to explore and hide if they want.

 

 

[YeePuffer]

Kept a Pea Puffer for about a year.

Unless you have a good source of pest snails in another aquarium I wouldn’t do it. I kept a single pea puffer and I had a small 2 Gallon snail tank just to keep her fed.  They can be picky eaters too outside of live food, mine would not touch blood worms but loved brine shrimp. 
 

I haven’t kept them in a group before, but from what I’ve read three is the recommended amount in a ten gallon & you might have to deal with aggression issues too. Personally I’d recommend one Pea Puffer in a five gallon starting out. They are very cool though and I strongly recommend them, just be prepared to put in the extra work. 

[Karen B.]

On 2/26/2022 at 5:00 PM, YeePuffer said:

Kept a Pea Puffer for about a year.

Unless you have a good source of pest snails in another aquarium I wouldn’t do it. I kept a single pea puffer and I had a small 2 Gallon snail tank just to keep her fed.  They can be picky eaters too outside of live food, mine would not touch blood worms but loved brine shrimp. 
 

I haven’t kept them in a group before, but from what I’ve read three is the recommended amount in a ten gallon & you might have to deal with aggression issues too. Personally I’d recommend one Pea Puffer in a five gallon starting out. They are very cool though and I strongly recommend them, just be prepared to put in the extra work. 

Thanks for the insight.
 

I have started a couple of weeks ago a 5 gallons buckets where I throw all the pest snails I find in my other aquarium. Soooo disgusting but it seems to work so far. 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

I'd have to caution you. I agree even without having kept one they'd be hard. I admire @Odd Duck's fish keeping skills and as a pea puffer keeper she's even had some issues with aggression. PLUS they come with their own set of diseases since they are wild caught and need to be treated. They are adorable I don't blame you but I'd probably go for something a lot hardier this next time around. 

Edited February 26, 2022 by xXInkedPhoenixX

[Odd Duck]

They are without doubt, the most challenging freshwater fish I’ve kept and I’ve bred Betta splendens back in the day and plan to bred some Betta persephone as soon as I can get them.  Check the 6 G Buce tank link in my signature.  Plus my 29 GPea Puffer tank link.  It might shed some light.  I have gotten pretty good at culturing multiple kinds of live foods, but I’ve also,had trials and travails while doing it.

They look like cute little things but make no mistake about it, they are absolutely, full on predators and many things are on the menu.  They are NOT kind to each other.  If you are determined, it can be done, but I now have 4, 5 gallon snail, blackworm and Daphnia culture tanks, 2 scud culture jars I just set up, 4 boxes of worm cultures (2 each of whiteworms and Grindal worms), 2 deli cup cultures of microworms, and now I’m considering a couple more deli cup cultures since just today I read about a way to do high density cultures of vinegar eels in media like microworms instead of in liquid vinegar (easier to harvest).  All this in the name of trying to breed peas so less would be taken from the wild.

You don’t need all this to keep a few peas, but please at least read through Bad Pea Daddy’s story (6 G Buce) before you get any pea puffers.  What I’ve posted isn’t even all of his story.

[Karen B.]

On 2/26/2022 at 6:25 PM, Odd Duck said:

They are without doubt, the most challenging freshwater fish I’ve kept and I’ve bred Betta splendens back in the day and plan to bred some Betta persephone as soon as I can get them.  Check the 6 G Buce tank link in my signature.  Plus my 29 GPea Puffer tank link.  It might shed some light.  I have gotten pretty good at culturing multiple kinds of live foods, but I’ve also,had trials and travails while doing it.

They look like cute little things but make no mistake about it, they are absolutely, full on predators and many things are on the menu.  They are NOT kind to each other.  If you are determined, it can be done, but I now have 4, 5 gallon snail, blackworm and Daphnia culture tanks, 2 scud culture jars I just set up, 4 boxes of worm cultures (2 each of whiteworms and Grindal worms), 2 deli cup cultures of microworms, and now I’m considering a couple more deli cup cultures since just today I read about a way to do high density cultures of vinegar eels in media like microworms instead of in liquid vinegar (easier to harvest).  All this in the name of trying to breed peas so less would be taken from the wild.

You don’t need all this to keep a few peas, but please at least read through Bad Pea Daddy’s story (6 G Buce) before you get any pea puffers.  What I’ve posted isn’t even all of his story.

Thank you so much for all these informations! I read about Bad Pea Daddy’s storie. Yikes! I hope I can avoid that by buying them all at the same time. But I took some notes. I wish I could give them more space then a 10 gallons tho.

I have mixed feelings - I could just get a betta but I feel I would forever have the regrets of never trying the pea puffers. Or I could get my pea puffers, have a bad experience and regret ever getting them. 
 

I do have a 5 gallons snails bucket going. It’s been going for over 3 weeks now. 2 kind of pest snails in it. I did want to start a culture of black worms but I have yet to find one in Canada. I do have vinegar eels for my Clown killies fry but don’t think I will try to breed pea puffers. 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Considering what you say is "your luck" I'd avoid Bettas too. Have you noticed how many sick/dying betta posts we get on a DAILY basis? I won't keep them anymore myself. I manage to keep everything else alive with no issues- bettas- yea, no thanks. 

[Karen B.]

On 2/27/2022 at 11:12 AM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

Considering what you say is "your luck" I'd avoid Bettas too. Have you noticed how many sick/dying betta posts we get on a DAILY basis? I won't keep them anymore myself. I manage to keep everything else alive with no issues- bettas- yea, no thanks. 

A bit too late! 😅 But yeah, it’s more difficult to keep a wet pet that you name and has a personality vs a generic schooling fish like my Chili Rasboras
 

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Well they are beautiful! If I did it again, I'd keep the tank at 80-82, make sure I had a tight fitting lid or put some plastic wrap over most of the top for humidity and add Catappa leaves to the tank. Good luck @Karen B.! Hope this time it works out very well for you!

[Jennifer V]

I started out with pea puffers a little over a year ago as my first fish not really knowing what I was getting into. I started with six juveniles I bought from Aqua Huna -- highly recommend AH -- for my 10g. As they started to grow to where I could sex them, they really started fighting and it was scary so I immediately rehomed two of the males and ended up with three females and one male. I was very lucky though. If I had to do it over again, I'd have started with a much larger tank -- at least 20g -- and give them much more space. They are very challenging little fish and require a ton of care. That's not to say you can't do it, but I'd be very cautious if you have any kind of trepidation whatsoever. 

Edited February 28, 2022 by Jennifer V