r/PeaPuffers

I just started a daphnia culture (and therefore a green water culture) and it’s only been a couple weeks but I love it !!! The peas are such piggies. You give em anything and they gobble it right up. At least with the daphnia they’re tiny so the puffers spend a lot of time chasing em down to get a meal. Hoping the cories figure it out too!

My other tank has a lot of nano fish and tetras and they looooove em too.

Any advice is welcome 🙏

I have a group of 7 in my new 15g. I bought a Fluval Flex that was fully planted with some friends already.

These are a dream fish of mine! I have frozen Daphnia, frozen mysis shrimp, frozen brine shrimp, and a lot of snails from another tank. So far they love the snails!

i got two pea puffers not too long ago and of course treated them for parasites when i brought them home. one of them was definitely healthier and has been thriving but one unfortunately passed not super long after i got them (im pretty sure from a parasite since it wasnt really moving or eating and was super skinny). i wanted to go back to the shop a lot sooner but unfortunately life gets in the way so i had to wait but i did wind up getting another and i know pea puffers shouldnt be kept in twos but they are doing very well together and there was only a little bit of aggression when they first saw each other but now they are doing perfectly fine. i have a heavily planted tank as well to break lines of site as well as to provide lots of hiding spaces. i know they are young but i was wondering if anyone can tell me if they are male or female? this is bobby mcgee (slide 1) and janis joplin (slide 2). janis is very skinny right now since i got her/him very recently (bobby was too when i first got him i dont think they were fed well at the store:/) but he/she is showing interest in food and eating i did treat for parasites. i work at a different pet store and im able to get a lot of bladder snails but jeez these guys clean em up fast. they wont touch the thawed frozen brine shrimp. any tips on how to get them eating other foods? ive started trying to introduce tong feeding so they associate them with food so i can try feeding them that way. i appreciate any help!

edit: forgot to add- i strictly use poland spring water for my tank (not purified) and i have lots of driftwood and im always adding mopani leaves and cones etc but when i test ny water it still comes up hard. i use a water conditioner on the new water when i do any changes. i know pea puffers like soft water and bobby mcgee has veen thriving so im definitely confused about that as well.

I think they’ve finally hit maturity so these two boys are getting cranky over the girls in the tank. One of the girls looks like she may be carrying eggs and one of these two has been courting her but this was the first aggressive behaviour I’ve seen. I got all freaked out because their whole body shape changed almost like a normal fish shape, they didn’t just puff up.

They’re just in this little 10g tank for now until my new tank (55g) cycles a bit. But they’re checking everything out and seem happy so far.

Does anyone have experience with keeping pea puffers in large tanks? Or huge groups? I would get as big of a group as I can ( 15-20 if not double or triple that)

My main two concerns:

- sick fish might hide and die unnoticed
- shy/sick fish won’t get food

Ive kept 10 pea puffers in a 20g long, but they passed due to a bad heater malfunction summer of 2024. I really miss their shoaling behavior and personalities. I’m mostly including this to say that I have experience with feeding and deworming puffers.

I might change up the plants a little to give more line of sight breaks and cover. I plan on adding botanicals too.
There is a steady population of tiny snails and low grade shrimp. I have a hang on the back (w intake cover sponge) and a large sponge filter.

I would add some peaceful nano tank mates as I’ve had good experiences with that in the past.

Any advice or experiences are super appreciated!

One of my peas …has this weird lump on its side and it makes them look lopsided and looks kinda like multiple lumps …..

My puffers are arriving in 4 days, all my water parameters are reading correctly. I have a ramshorn and bladder snail colony thriving inside. Planning on feeding live scuds along with frozen bloodworms a few times per week.

Just looking for any last minute advice here. What could I do better?

Hii, I'm setting up this 23gal tank for peas in a few months! for context, I currently have 6 Kuhli loaches and 3 otos; hopefully by then the row of stem plants on the right will have grown in, and I will have some tiger lotus + more barclaya behind/under the wood with my attempted infestation of ramshorns/mini ramshorns complete.

Now the question! I'm a bit torn (and maybe delusional) in how many peas and dither fish I should add. I had 2 plans in mind both with their selection of questions

1. 10 pea puffers
   • Will this be too many for my current set up/tank size? (heater and hob conveniently hidden behind wood)
2. 6 peas + 6 cpds
   • Are cpds fast enough to be unbothered by the peas? Or will the cpds just be an inevitable expensive snack?
   • are there better dither fish to put in with puffers?
   • Would it be smarter to let the dither fish be introduced first to stake their claim to the hidey spots and give the peas a community to "grow up with", or to get the peas first to assess their personalities?
   • Is this set up/tank size too sparse/small for this combo?

I may be a little bit delusional, but I want to ask for your opinions before writing the dream off. Additionally if you guys have any plant/decorating advice, other stocking suggestions or just tips in general I'd love to hear it!

Thank you all so much in advanced!

Edit: I also have some azolla rubra floating to try have their roots come down for more coverage

Do I have to remove some of the blackworms before adding puffers? I have several other blackworm cultures setup, but I'm curious if these worms will hide some once I add puffers to the tank... Or will it just be absolute carnage leading to an ammonia spike?

This section of the tank is the only spot that isn't heavily planted. I am ready to add puffers in a couple of weeks, but want to make sure an abundance of worms won't cause any problems.

There is zero fish, just shrimp, snails, worms and various microfauna like ostracods, copepods and paramecium. Tank is nitrate starved from all the plants. I don't want there to be any issues once I add 6 or 7 peas.

I just got a pea today and I went to feed him and he ate a few worms that was falling into the tank but the rest of the black worms are just moving on the sand floor and the puffer got no interest for them what can I do?