Breeding Dwarf Puffers also called "Pea Puffer"
By Evelyn
Copyright 2007

For the Spawning Tank

• 20 gallon tank, which is cycled (that means Temp set at 80 degrees for spawning, pH 7.5-8.3, hardness: 8-15, Nitrates: under 20ppm (mg/L)

• 16 pounds of Osio Sand or black substrate

• A Sponge filter, with the setting on low

• Lots of plants (Anubis, Cryptocoryne, Echinodorus, Hygrophila, Willow fern and lots of Willow moss

• Thermometer

• an air stone tube for cleaning

• a transparent plastic container for siphoning the water in

• an eye dropper

• a very strong magnifying glass (without that you won't find the eggs)

• and finally 2-3 females and 1 male

The Baby Tank

• 15 gallon tank fully cycled with the same parameters as the parents tank

• 6 pounds of Osio Sand or black Substrate

• A Sponge filter driven by an Air pump

• a heater

• half of the tank filled with the sand and heavily planted with willow moss, the other half should be bare bottom

Foods for Your Fry

Infusoria
Is the best food for your fry for the first week after they have hatched

Newly hatched Baby Brine Shrimp
From 8-14 days you can feed your fry with BBS

Tubifex worms (cut to 2-3 mm long)
From 15-28 days you can start feeding them with Tubifex worms including the BBS

Blood worms and Grindal worms
After they are about 4 weeks old you can start feeding them with Blood Worms and Grindal Worms

Snails
You can Start introducing snails to their diet when they're about 2 months old

Here is a site on how to make your own live food for fry
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/fry_food.php


Spawning them

• To induce spawning you need to turn up the temperature to at least 80 degrees, and do partial water changes of 25% every other day, and refill the sucked out water with aged water at the same temperature

• If you watch them closely you will see that they start courting each other, that means the male will get very close to the female, and when the female is ready she will not dart away from, when both of them ready they will hide away in the Willow moss.

• You will see the female coming out, and if you have a good father he will tend to his eggs for at least 2 days, you will also notice that he will eat much less in this time

• After he leaves his nest, you can take a magnifying glass and start searching for the eggs, suck them up with an eyedropper and transfer them into the willow moss in your Baby tank

From Egg to Fry

Here is a great Slide show that shows the growth from egg to fry and then to juveniles
http://s208.photobucket.com/albums/bb53/evelynmarch26/dwarf%20puffers%20growing/?action=view&current=dc4cb5d2.pbw


Raising the fry

• The fry will hatch after about 5-6 days

• When the eggs hatch, the fry are red-striped. They look like small shrimps.

• You will start feeding them when they're about 4 days old with Infusoria (the best way to do that, is taking an eyedropper and squirting it onto the willow moss where you put them as eggs)

• Since they're hiding in the moss, you won't see much from them at all, until they're free swimming, which happens when they're about 2 weeks old of age.

• At the age of 8-14 days you should feed them with freshly hatched BBS

• You need to do daily partial water changes of 10%, which you will replace with water from the parents tank (after you siphoned out the water let it sit for a while and take your magnifying glass to search for babies you might have sucked out, take a turkey buster and suck them out of your container and place the fry back into the moss, if no more fry's are found dump the water)

• Once they're free swimming they will start searching for foods in the bare bottoms, that's the time you will start feeding them only there but still with the same method

• When they're about 15 days you can start them feeding with Tubifex worms as well as BBS, until they're about 28 days old

• When they're about 4 weeks old you start feeding them with Blood Worms and Grindal Worms

• When they're about 2 months of age, you can add snails to their diet

You will also soon discover to your horror , that the babies are cannibals and the bigger ones will eat the smaller babies. Therefore, it's very important to have a lot of plants and hiding places. The bigger the tank and the more plants you have, the more babies you can raise.

The reason you should separate the eggs from the parents tank is, because the parents will most likely eat them if you don't, unless you don't want any babies.
 
Once they start eating bloodworms and grindal worms they grow very fast, and will see them growing from in the morning when you get up, to the time you get home form work and go to sleep.