[MyraVan]

On Friday I got three dwarf puffers. They are in a well-planted 10g tank, 18" x 12" x 12". I don't know the sexes of them, since they are too small to tell. The tank is completely cycled; it has been up and running for 2 years. Other than the puffers, there are 4 Amano shrimp in it and 3 Otos, all of which are fine.

The tank had quite a few small pest snails in it, so when they didn't eat any of the defrosted frozen food that I put in for them, I didn't worry. But what I saw today did worry me. First, I could only find 2 of my puffers. There is one that is a bit bigger than the other. The bigger one will often chase the smaller one around, and the littler one flares its tail fin as it swims away, maybe this is a sign of submission in the drawf puffer hierarchy? The bigger guy didn't nip at the little one, so no damage is being done, at least that I can see.

Second, while the bigger one actually did eat a small amount of the mysis shrimp that I put in, the smaller one ignored it. And I put the food right into the stream of the filter, so it had plenty of movement. The little guy seemed to look at the food floating by, but didn't eat it. The bigger one looked at it a bit first, then tried some and spat it out, then actually seemed to eat a piece or two.

I think tomorrow I will raid my other tanks for some more pest snails to put in the tank, in hopes that the little guy will find the snails more attractive than the defrosted food. Is this a good idea?

Does anyone have any other advice? I have read all the stuff at dwarfpuffers.com, so basically I'm looking for advice from people who own these guys who might have experienced some of these problems.