Dwarf puffer-in progress

[fishboy]

Marzuki, my unsexed DP(she's/he's to young to show signs)
DISTRIBUTION-- India, low current areas.
HABITAT-- Likes densely planted habitats with little current.
SIZE--1"
TANK SIZE-- a 2.5 to 3 gallon will hold 1, though it is best to keep a 10 gallon with 1 male and 2 females if the tank has caves and other hiding places so they can make territories, DO NOT USE THE 1" PER GALLON RULE!!!!!!! 10 DPs in a 10 gallon is a death sentences for more then half, the are mean little buggers so don't let the cute face fool you.
DIET-- They will eat frozen and live foods. They also eat snails in the wild and if they're very hungry they'll eat fins. I feed mine bloodworms.
TANK ZONE-- All
TEMPERAMENT--Aggressive
CHEMISTRY:
-pH- Not important i keep mine at 7.0
-Hardness- Not important, i keep mine medium
-Temperature- Around 75 degrees F
LIGHT-- 12 hours light/12 hours dark
SEASONAL CHANGES CRITICAL?-- Equator, no need
SENSITIVITIES-- Can not handle a cycle, must be introduced to a well cycled tank.
HARDINESS & LIFESPAN-- Pretty tough with water conditions but not cycling conditions. I believe it lives 2 to 3 years
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION-- Slightly enlongated with a thick and short tadpole tail. That is the body shape. The front of the head has a slightly triangular shaped area on an angle where on the wide ends are eyes and below the lower point in a small beak like mouth. The stomach is white and above the stomach is dark green/brown with dark brown spots and a dark brown line on the tail. It has a cauadel fin that can fan and contract(the contracted tail is like a tadpole's) and right before the tail there are identical anal and dorsal fins on the bottom and top of the fish. Though all fish vary in patterns and have the ability to change color slightly, I've seen mine become dark brown, green, light green, and very light brown. I've posted a picture of mine for clarification.
SEXES-- The males get a brown stripe down the center of its belly. As it ages and it is thought to commonly have "wrinkles" behind their eyes. Females don't have this.
ACTIVITY PEAK-- During the day.
HABITS--It seems to be intelligent. At night mine lays immobile in the gravel with its eyes closed and turns a very light brown. They will eat bloodworms off your finger. But it is unlikely to see them "puff".
SPAWNING NOTES[/color]-- This fish is an egg layer. The male will guard them (i believe) and before the spawn the male may nip and the females belly
OTHER NOTES-- Not very friendly. Only good match are ottos but it isn't advised for the DP may injure the fragile otto and ottos do better in groups but you'd need a big tank with alot of algea to support a group of ottos though many people have kept 3 DPs and a otto in a 10 gallon with a good outcome. Female(and sometimes male) DPs will get alone with other fish if they are friendlier then your normal DP but most will nip other fishes' fins. No snails unless you won't miss them, DPs are musculavors by nature and will snack on any size snail by eating it out of its shell or, if the snail is smaller then the DP's eye, it will crack the shell with its beak. Shrimp may live for awhile but in time will be eaten. Also no strong current, they hate it for they aren't very powerful swimmers. I used a small internal filter and mine likes to use the outtake's current as a ride sometimes but it's not powerful. Overall they are a very "loveable" fish and will make a great addition to a desk or fish room.

[fishboy]

any advice? I don't know how the change the font color for the tags and not change the overal font. There is most likely alot of spelling errors

[Fishfirst]

{color=blue} only with these brackets around the words [ ] then end it with {/color} same thing with the brackets.

puffing is usually a sign of stress, if they show this at the fish store, don't buy it.

[fishfreaks]

Marzuki, my unsexed DP(she's/he's to young to show signs)
DISTRIBUTION-- India, low current areas.
HABITAT-- Likes densely planted habitats with little current.
SIZE--1"
TANK SIZE-- a 2.5 to 3 gallon will hold 1, though it is best to keep a 10 gallon with 1 male and 2 females.
DIET-- They will eat frozen and live foods. They also eat snails in the wild and if they're very hungry they'll eat fins. I feed mine bloodworms.
TANK ZONE-- A little of everything, mine stays between middle and bottom mostly.
TEMPERAMENT--Aggressive
CHEMISTRY:
-pH- Not important i keep mine at 7.0
-Hardness- Not important, i keep mine medium
-Temperature- Around 75 degrees F
LIGHT-- 12 hours light/12 hours dark
SEASONAL CHANGES CRITICAL?-- Not critical, near equator naturally
SENSITIVITIES-- Can not handle a cycle, must be introduced to a well cycled tank.
HARDINESS & LIFESPAN-- Pretty tough with water conditions but not cycling conditions. I believe it lives 2 to 3 years.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION-- Imagine a slightly elongated pea with a thick and short tadpole tail. That is the body shape. The front of the head has a slightly triangular shaped area on an angle where on the wide ends are eyes and below the lower point in a small beak like mouth. The stomach is white and above the stomach is dark green/brown with dark brown spots and a dark brown line on the tail. It has a caudel fin that can fan and contract (the contracted tail is like a tadpole's) and right before the tail there are identical anal and dorsal fins on the bottom and top of the fish. Though all fish vary in patterns and have the ability to change color slightly, I've seen mine become dark brown, green, light green and very light brown. I've posted a picture of mine for clarification but I'll try to get one of him in his morning light brown coloration
SEXES-- The males get a brown stripe down the center of its belly. As it ages and it is thought to commonly have "wrinkles" behind their eyes. Females don't have this.
ACTIVITY PEAK-- During the day.
HABITS--It seems to be intelligent. At night mine lays immobile in the gravel with its eyes closed and turns a very light brown. They will eat bloodworms off your finger. But it is unlikely to see them "puff"
SPAWNING NOTES-- This fish is an egg layer. The male will guard them (i believe) and before the spawn the male may nip and the females belly
OTHER NOTES-- Not very friendly. Only good match are ottos but it isn't advised for the DP may injure the fragile otto and ottos need groups so you'd need a big tank with alot of algae. No snails unless you won't miss them, DPs are musculavors by nature and will snack on any size snail by eating it out of its shell or, if the snail is smaller then the DP's eye, it will crack the shell with its beak. Shrimp may live for awhile but in time will be eaten.

[fishfreaks]

I fixed some grammar and spelling errors for you fishboy. It was easier to do things this way that to copy everything by itself. So if you want you can edit your post and just put this in there. I did not alter anything else. Also someone else told me that we should put the *c on there too along with the*f

[fishboy]

thanks i fixed everything, is it ready?

[flamingo]

Okay heres some pointers from my experience and my cousins:

1. Ottos do not need to be kept in groups. They can be kept with dwarves since most of the time the puffers won't really even notice them. Some people have had theres killed but from the ones i've had this was never a problem.

2. Like you said, only 3 if you have them in a 10 gallon. That may seem like nothing due to they're size. My cousin put 5 in his 10 when he first tried them. Not a good idea, within a couple days he had i think 2 or 3 left.

3. Don't keep them with bigger fish. The puffers suprisingly will most likely attack or "fin ride" on them. My cousin had a kissing gourami with his and they would bite and hang on to its fins and take a little ride.

4. Don't have strong currents or suction from a filter. This may sound wierd but when i had some a while back i had a strong filter and they got stuck to the filter intake lol.

5. Be very picky on tankmates. Thye only ones i've gotten to work are kuhli loaches,ottos, and one time a molly.

[fishboy]

made the changes suggested, is it ready?

[fishfreaks]

TANK ZONE-- A little of eveything, mine stays between middle and bottom mostly.

Should be everything

SEASONAL CHANGES CRITICAL?-- Not critical, near equater naturally

Equater should be equator

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION-- Imagine a slightly enlongated pea

Should be elongated

It has a cuadel fin that can fan and

I'm not positive, but i think cauadel is wrong

and right before the tail there are indentical anal and

indentical should be identical

HABITS--It seems intelligent. At night mine lays inmobile in the

you should put it seems to be intelligent and inmobile should be immobile

otto and ottos do better in groups but you'd need a big tank with alot of algea to support a group of ottos though many people have kept 3 DPs and a oto in a 10 gallon with a good outcome.

Also this i think you should take out of this profile and add it into the otto profile. JMO though.

I don'y know much about dp's other than ive read here but its looking good fishboy!!

[flamingo]

Agreed. Take out the otto part and just put

" Some tankmates that are regularly kept would include: ottos, ......"

Something like that. You don't need to get into a lot of detail about the otto. Just tell us it's a good tankmate.

Do a spell check and it should be a little better. But just remember spell check won't do everything. Like for example, it doesn't know what pterosynchirus was when I used a spell check on a profile I did. So have someone else read it over.

[fishboy]

Detail is never a bad thing, it gets a point across. The profile should include, i my mind, the facts about ottos as they are the best known taknmate for these puffers

[fishboy]

I made all the changes suggested but the otto part. If you think it should be removed then write your own DP profile

[fishfreaks]

Sorry fishboy we were just trying to help, said JMO

[fishboy]

Well it's done, but i don't know how to change the title to remove the in progress.

[garfieldnfish]

I have 3 DPs in a 15 gal with a CAE. Best combo of all my tanks. No aggression on either part, no competition over food and the tank is spotless. I bought this tank because the CAE got aggressive and had to be removed from my community tank. I added the DPs on a hunch and it was a great decision. But a CAE should really be in a 20 gal and I will move these guys at some point in the future into a larger tank but for right now peace has ruled this tank. So if someone decides to make a species tank and picks a 20 gal or larger for DPs, the best choice for a tankmate is a CAE, even an aggressive one, even he seems to know they are poisonous if eaten.
I have read the physical description of the wrinkles behind the eyes and the dark line but could not see the wrinkles on mine and I'm pretty sure I have 2 females and one male. The male looks a little like a 50 year old man that loves his beer, small chest and a prodruding belly. While the females are more evenly rounded in the midsection.

[zerosum]

You won't believe this but I have 2 puffers (for almost a year) and their tank mates are 2 african cichlids, a ropefish, and a pink tail chelceus. I have no idea how but they don't bother eachother..Once they chewed off all my yellow cichlids fins and tail but he kind of wiggled aroudn the tank til they grew back now they leave him alone..also I was wondering if anyone else has a ropefish and what they feed them...mine seems to only go for crickets and steak

[flamingo]

Steak!?! lol

My cousin has his with a ton of other fish but I wouldn't really suggest it.
His ropefish usually eats silversides and stuff like that. From what i've seen they are very picky eaters. My cousin's took a month before it ate and the one I had never ate once.

[zerosum]

haha yes, i chop the steak up in littel pieces and he freaks little a crocidile or somethin...rolls around like a maniac as soon as he gets it, but it takes him a long time to find anything cause of thier poor vision, kind of annoying trying to get these guys to eat but it's worth it

[Caitlin Rose]

I got three (for my 10 gal) and had not heard anything about them being agressive! Fortunately mine have been fine in my community tank. I have Neon Tetras, a CAE and 3 Bumblebee Catfish all get along fine (with the puffers... needless to say the CAE doesn't get along with anything else). Do you think mine are a fluke- friendly puffers? Or will they get more agressive with age?

[Jolly Mon]

I bought three DP's and put them into a community tank. Everything was fine for a week or so....then they would hover around my 6 inch pleco and takes nips out of him.

The DP's are now residing in their own 10 gallon tank with some large snails.