hi ok im wanting one of these little things and ive done a bit of research but id like to hear from people who own them about anything i need to know e.g size of tank tankmates food feedign habbits anything even if its one thing i would appresgiate it very much :)

DPs are very individual little critters and can be very aggressive to tank mates where as some are very placid.

DPs need to be fed shell fish in their diet, this is due to them having a beak that constantly grows, so when they bit on shell fish it wears it away, a bit like how a hamster has to always gnaw stuff?

They are very messy eaters for their size and need a slightly better than average filter for them in a well stocked tank. It also depends on how many DPs you have.


Im no means the experts on these little fish and im certain punky or dwarfs can advise you better on this topic

thanks for the info :P i just want one at the mo :)

you need 5 gallons per dp. as with all puffers try to have no tankmates other than dp's. some people have very placid puffers and have successfully kept other fish like otos with dp's but its not common

can i add plants ect with them do u know if they perfer gravel to sand what there nateral habitat is like as id like to reinforce it as much as i can so it feel more at home :)

use sand. im not sure about the plants but you can probly have some

DPs are from the river amazon so water, substrate and plants should be just like it is there, silty/sandy bottom, slightly acid water, heavilly planeted with swimming spots is ideal for these little chaps :D

Oddy :crazy:

Most like live food, but depending on what the lfs has been feeding them, they may accept frozen foods such as bloodworms. Esp if you put them in the filter current... it kind of tricks the DP into thinking it's alive. You want to have SMALL pond snails that you can drop in the tank once a week or so. They need to be the size of the DP's eye so it can crush it with it's teeth... that's how they keep their teeth filed down. If the snails are too big they'll just suck the snail out of the shell and their teeth will get too long and they won't be able to eat. Do not add trumpet/malaysian snails to the tank as the shell on it is too hard and can crack/break the DPs teeth.
When I had mine I did sand substrate, heavily planted with open areas to swim, had a few small caves and fed them frozen bloodworm every other day and dropped a few snails in once a week. I had a 10-gal with a pair in it, and the fm chased the male around quite a bit. If I ever get them again I'll just keep one to a 5+-gal tank. Try to keep the current from getting too rough too if you can. You can add ghost shrimp to the tank. I had some in mine and they'd only kill 1 every week or so. I've heard otos will work, but I never tried it. I was just too chicken. If you do try it though keep a close eye on them and have a place to rehome the oto just in case.
That's all I can think of right now... hope it helps!
If you get some good luck! They are extrememly awesome little fish!