# Petsmart Puffers



## cucci67 (Aug 3, 2005)

Over the past weeks I have been cycling a 10 gallon for dwarf puffers. About a week ago it finished cycling and I have been feeding the bacteria colony small amounts of ammonia to keep them alive. I am ready to add my puffers. The only place around here to get DPs is petsmart. They tell me they feed their DPs flake and freeze dried foods. From what I have been reading on them, they only accept live foods and sometimes frozen foods. I have also read that some poeple have success with flake/freeze drieds. What I am guessing is that the ones that will nto accept the prepared foods are the imported wild fish, and the willngly ones are the tank bred species that petsmart carries. I just want to be sure before I buy these puffers considering I am not able to feed live/frozen foods right now. 

I am going to stock 1 male and 2 females. I might stick 2 ottos in there, but that will be determined later. The tank has a fine gravel substrate, and is planted with java moss and java fern, thinking of getting a small peice of driftwood in there also. 

Sorry for such a long post, replies are appriciated.


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## Damon (Jan 18, 2005)

If you cannot provide them with frozen/freeze dried foods I wouldn't get them. Many fish wont eat flake foods when you first acquire them. You should always be prepared in case this happens.


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## cucci67 (Aug 3, 2005)

well I guess I could convince my mom to let me keep some frozen bloodworms in my freezer. I did see the woman at petsmart feeding the puffers flake foods when I was there as they were closing.


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## AshleytheGreat (Jul 24, 2005)

Hehe i hope the people at Petsmart know the difference between male and female. What i used to do is ask for those little black snails on the glass and they would give them to me for free. The only problem was after tasting the prime rib they didnt want to eat hotdogs anymore. ((A))


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## cucci67 (Aug 3, 2005)

Ashley, are you saying that yours would eat flake or freeze dried foods?


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## Guest (Jul 19, 2006)

If the ones in the store are eating flakes, then I'd give them a try when you get them. But be prepared for them not to eat them (i.e. get some frozen bloodworms). I'd try the flakes first, if in fact the ones at the store are eating them. My mom thought having frozen bloodworms in the freezer was gross. I leave the package in a plastic grocery sack so she doesn't have to look at them when she opens the freezer.


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## AshleytheGreat (Jul 24, 2005)

Before eating snails they would only eat froze brine shrimp which have little nutritional value as im sure you well know. So thats when i started asking for snails because they wouldnt eat any flake/other freeze dried food.


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## Puffer Pita (Jun 16, 2006)

DPs are carnivores and should not be fed flakes or pellets. They need a diet of primarily meat or their health will suffer. Please do not feed them flakes. If you can't provide the proper diet, you shouldn't get them. There are a variety of frozen foods that can be used, such as frozen daphnia, mysis shrimp, and bloodworms. 

PetSmart and PetCo are notorious for selling puffers who have intestinal parasites. If their stomachs are sunken in at all, avoid them. Not just the ones with the sunken tummies but all of them as they will all have been exposed. If you do get them, be prepared to start treatment for IPs immediately and even then, its very common for them to die. 

If you are going to feed them snails, make sure they are not Malaysian Trumpet snails. They look like pointed ice cream cones. Any other type of snail will do, but MTSes are too hard shelled and can break their teeth. Snails are more of a treat than anything for DPs, they don't need them for tooth control like other types of puffers do.

As far as sexing them, there is only one way. Don't listen to anyone tell you that you can tell by spots, size, body shape, etc. Even the belly stripe is iffy - some males never get it and some females do. The only surefire way of sexing them is eye wrinkles. Males get irridescent wrinkles behind their eyes, females never do. However, most of the time, the ones sold in stores are too young to be sexed, so if they don't have eye wrinkles, they could be either female or male. If it has eye wrinkles, its a male. If it doesn't, it could be either.

For a 10 gallon tank, 3 is the max you should have and it should be *VERY* heavily planted/decorated. Be prepared to rehome or return one or more, too, as they very often do not get along. And even if they get along when young, they often have issues when they get older and will shred each other.

I highly recommend the website www.dwarfpuffers.com. We "specialize" in DPs there.


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## cucci67 (Aug 3, 2005)

Boxermom, thank you very much for the info. After reading your views I have decided not to go with the puffers since I can not provide them with 100% of what they need. I went to the lfs last night and bought 2 dwarf crayfish, and 4 harlequin rasboras. THe rasboras will end up in the 55 gallon eventually when I redo everything, I will get 10 more so I can have a nice school of 14. I guess that settles everything, thanks for the replies guys.


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## Puffer Pita (Jun 16, 2006)

You're welcome. Its always best to make an informed decision, IMO.  Puffers are wonderful but have special considerations that need to be taken into account. I have DPs, a GSP and two A.modestus so far (and looking to get a couple of baileyi's if I can convince hubby to let me spend the money on them - they're over $100 each).  I have a lot of other fish as well, 12 tanks total, but seem to spend a majority of my time on the puffers. Feeding, examining, making sure their tanks are as close to pristine as I can, etc. Takes a good bit of dedication (and a great bit of money) to make sure they are healthy and happy.


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## cucci67 (Aug 3, 2005)

Exactly, I don't want any fish that I can not please 100%. There are so many fish that I dream of having, stingrays, puffers, so many others, but I continue to hold them off until I can gather the proper sized tank, foods, and other special needs of these beatiful oddballs.


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## Puffer Pita (Jun 16, 2006)

I love odd fish. Got a baby whale that's probably my favorite non-puffer fish.  Wish I could get a ray but it won't fit in my spare 55g for long. Some day though.


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## aykfc (Jun 6, 2006)

I work at petsmart, and the majority of employees working in speciality just toss in food. Flakes, or other stuff. The fish are fed 2 times a day sometimes twice in a feeding. The puffers at my petsmart are very healthy. Although... maybe were so good because we are right next to corporate......


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## tonkstoy2003 (Jun 12, 2006)

Suprisingly, Have You Tried Wal-mart? This Month They're Featured Fish Is The Puffer. They're Cute, And I Was Suprised To See That Wal-mart Has Them.. They Said It Won't Be For Too Long, As Its Just The Featured Fish Of This Month.. You Might Want To Check That Out Also When You Decide..  
~jamie


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## Puffer Pita (Jun 16, 2006)

Ugh.  Which means a whole lot of clueless people will get them and kill them through ignorance.


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## Gourami Swami (Jul 4, 2006)

Stupid people are going to buy petsmart and wal*mart fish and kill them through ignorance anyway, It might as well be puffers as it is 3 cichlids in a bowl. I have lots of petsmart horror stories, but some are good. All in all petsmart doesnt take such bad care of their fish as walmart does, the only problem I ever see is overstocking the tanks, but that is expected. Yesterday I even met an employee who knows what hes talking about! I would try the petsmart puffers, and have some snails ready incase they dont eat flake when you take them. Then gradually switch their food over to a carnivorous meal.


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