Freshwater dwarf puffer

Question
QUESTION: Hello,
I have a few questions on getting the fish and how many i should get. I have a 38 gal. tank, i bought it from a yard sale thinking it was a 55, it looked about the size of my friends 55, anyway, i was wondering how many puffers i should put in there, I've read allot of stuff on them and so far five had people putting 6 of them in a 10 gallon, 4 in a 30 and so forth. i just got my aquarium set up yesterday, followed all the instructions "Jacks Aquarium" employees told me about adding water conditioner, and bio-boost the the water, to do something...i am aware that i need to let the water sit for about 2 weeks before i put any fish in my tank, the employees told me that i should put danios in my tank in about 2 days do do yet another thing to the water which i have no idea what...i have read that i need to get the water temp between 71-82F, i was going to try to keep it around 78. what i don't really know much about (other than everything else) is the water pH and hardness. how do i check that and what do i do to the water to get it to those levels? basically how do i set my tank up for dwarf puffers? i don't plan on breeding them, just having them set up in my room to look awesome. thanks for your time,
Shawn P.

ANSWER: Dear Shawn,
Have you set the aquarium up yet? I'm just wondering if you made sure to check it for any leaks since you got it at a yard sale. It probably doesn't have any leaks but it's good to "pre-test" it outside by filling it up first and checking for a drop in water level or if you see water droplets at the seam or any other signs of a leak.
If you do find a leak, you may be able to repair it easily.

With that aside, the most important thing you should know about is Cycling your tank. The petstore told you a little information on that, but they certainly didn't tell enough detail. Cycling means, allowing beneficial bacteria to colonize in your tank. These bacteria convert ammonia (from fish waste) into nitrite, which is another chemical. But later more bacteria convert the nitrite into nitrate which is a harmless chemical in fact and is removed by your regular maintenance water changes.
But these bacteria are not yet present in a newly setup aquarium to support a full tank of fish. And adding too many fish too soon will result in dangerous ammonia spikes.

But to cycle your tank, you'll need to add an ammonia source, most people use a few cycling fish such as Zebra danios or my favorite, the Black Skirt Tetra.
These cycling fish will be your only tank occupants until the aquarium cycles. Which usually takes about 3-6 weeks. If you can get ahold of some gravel or filter material from an established and healthy aquarium, you can jumpstart your cycling.
You'll also need test kits for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. pH and hardness are not as important and best left alone. Trying to adjust your pH and hardness only results in flucuations and some very stressed fish.

Make sure to test your water everyday for ammonia and feed your "cycling" fish very lightly once a day for now. If you notice a spike in ammonia immediately do a 30-50% water change. Sometimes if you can get enough gravel or filter media from another established and healthy tank, your aquarium may cycle in a week or sometimes even less.

Your best bet may be to "Fishless" cycle. It tends to be much faster than cycling with fish and the huge plus to this is no fish are harmed. You usually use PURE ammonia (make sure to check for any additives at all) or some people use fishfood, which decomposes and produces the ammonia source the bacteria need. To read everything you need to know about fishless cycling, visit here- http://www.aquariumsecrets.com/Fishless.htm

Once you have your aquarium cycled you can begin to stock it with your puffers. You made an excellent choice of fish, Dwarf puffers are incredible little fish and a plus is their small size, rather easy-going nature, and not requiring brackish water as their larger cousins such as the Figure-eight puffer do.
Dwarf puffers aren't too picky about their tank chemistry. What's much more important to them is good water quality. They cannot survive for long in ammonia-ridden water or filthy tank conditions. So make sure you do regular large water changes/gravel vacuumings and try to keep nitrates as low as possible.
Dwarf Puffers do thrive in planted aquariums and in this type of setup, males will stake out territories. The puffers' small size means a pair or a trio can be kept in a desktop tank but they seem to do great as groups in larger tanks also. Dwarf puffers are not particularly aggressive but you may find the occasional nipped fin but usually this is not much of a problem. Generally dwarf puffers are peaceful towards other fish, perhaps except slow-moving or long-finned species. A tank of just dwarf puffers is really best both because of a Dwarf puffer's small size and because they can't really compete for food all that well.
In your tank you could probably be able to keep a group of about 12 puffers or maybe a few more.

Puffers, like all fish should have a varied diet. They don't really thrive much on flake foods and do much better with an assortment of frozen or live foods like baby brine shrimp, grindal worms, and other foods such as redworms, brine shrimp. Feel free to try other kinds of frozen meaty foods. If the foods turn out to be too large, such as some worms, you could try cutting the worms into much smaller pieces. Dwarf puffers will also take freeze dried food fortunately, but keep in mind this should be pre-soaked in some tank water before feeding. Such things as Freeze dried krill, and other kinds of shrimp work well. Some puffers may eventually learn to take flake or pellet foods but don't count on it. With all the available freeze dried and frozen foods now, it's very easy to vary the diet of your puffers. It's also a good idea to try to maintain a colony of Ramshorn snails, these are the snails that are often considered pests whom hitchhike their way on live plants into your aquarium. The puffers won't bother the larger snails but the tiny ones are often crunched and consumed, and this helps keep the puffers teeth trimmed. Puffers teeth can become overgrown (much like a rodents) but with a varied diet and plenty of small snails to munch on this shouldn't be a problem at all.

With clean water and a good diet, Dwarf puffers should thrive and live for several years, perhaps 5 years or more.

I really hope this helps and please visit this website for more info on Dwarf Puffers:

         http://www.dwarfpuffers.com/

Best of luck and happy fishkeeping!
Karen~

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hello again!
    Hey i just have 2 questions this time. first off thank you very much for all the information on the dwarf puffers. i just got 6 of them today, i would have gotten more but didn't have enough money..and i didn't want to overcrowd my tank. when i was looking for them at the store i thought they would be about an inch to an inch and a half but they are just over a centimeter. i was like WHOA!! their tiny! but once i got them and they were in the bag they were all looking out of the bag, and they followed my finger everywhere. i thought that was awesome. ok, my main question is will the danios eat my puffers(since they are so small, compared the the dianos)and what should i do with the danios? i don't have another tank to put them in yet and i don't want any of my fish eaten...and how to get your water temp to drop? i have had my heater off for about 3 days trying to get the water temp to drop but it stays at 80 always...do i just do a small water change with cooler water? the water temp for puffers is somewhere between 72-82 and i want to try to get it around 76-78 to keep it in the middle. i hope you know what to do, you are by far the most knowledgeable(hope the spelling is right :D) person I've talked to so far. thanks allot,
Shawn
ANSWER: Hi Shawn,
Thank you very much for your really nice comments! I appreciate them greatly!

I'm really glad your Dwarf puffers are doing so well. It's really amazing how tiny they are also.

The danios -might- eat the puffers, there is always that possibility. But I really doubt it. What species of danio are they? If they are the little Zebra danios that are very common then I wouldn't think they'd harm the puffers, because the Zebra danios mouth is so small. But if they are the Giant Danios (hopefully not!) then I think the puffers would be danger.
If you are worried, you could ask your local petstore if they'd be willing to take the danios for you. I have a petstore that will take unwanted fish from people. Sometimes if you can locate a locally owned petshop they are often more willing to take fish.

Trust me, I have the same problem here with all my aquariums being very warm. I have all the heaters turned off in my aquariums and the temperature still stays around 82-84F everyday in fact. We have a rather hot summer! Fortunately the fish are doing well and don't seem to have any bad side-effects from it. It really won't hurt them. And your 80F is well-tolerated by most all aquarium fish. You could do a small water change with cooler water, or float a small amount of icecubes in a bag in the aquarium, or position a fan to blow across the surface of the water but it won't really be necessary. Again, warmer temperatures don't have that much effect on fish, probably the biggest danger is oxygen shortage. Warmer water holds less oxygen than cooler water. But you can easily prevent any problems by making sure the filter is creating as much surface agitation as possible and running an airstone or two in the tank also.

I really hope this helps!
As always, happy fishkeeping!
Karen~

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: hi yet again, heh, right now im worried, sick to my stomach, confused and all sorts of stuff. 2 of my dps have all of the suddon got round bellys, not that they turned to round fish just tht their stomachs are all puffed out like little balons, not real big, but just a little bit. im not sure if this is "puffed" or if they are pregnant. i read that if they get puffed up they are sometimes hungry and you should feed them a little bit to get them to calm down. PLS HELP! yet again XD
Thanks,
Shawn

Answer
Hi there,
I just sent the reply to your first letter, ;-)
Your puffers being puffed up may be responding to stress or just being scared in the new tank. I don't think theres much you can do but just wait it out and see. Again, like I mentioned before, make sure to check your water quality if possible and always if in doubt, do a quick 30-50% water change just in case.

I really hope this helps!
Best wishes,
Karen~