Going to get Dwarf Puffers, need filter(and Kimmers) help

[holbritter]

My 15 gallon is almost ready to start putting the substrate and plants in.

I have a Penguin 150 Bio-Wheel, that's rated for a 30gal, so the filtration should be good.
The questions I have is this: I want to take some of the ceramic rings out of my canister filter from my other tank, to help the cycle get going. Where do I put them in the filter?
It has 2 slots for filter cartridges. I don't want to use carbon, but DO want to use filter floss. I don't know where to put that either.
Do I just take the cartridge out, and stuff the floss in there?

Also, once cycled, do I take the borrowed ceramic rings out?

I hope Kimmers comes along with some tips on the puffers ;)

I plan on sand substrate...lots of plants (fake) and some caves and deco.
I want to get 3 or 4 puffers....1 male, the rest female, and I've got snails galore in my other tank for treats!
Kimmers...what do you feed yours?

[cocoa_pleco]

I just chuck the rings by the output, they just need to be in the water.

I fed my puffers flakes, bloodworm, and live crickets. They get pretty messy with live cricket

[holbritter]

I fed my puffers flakes, bloodworm, and live crickets. They get pretty messy with live cricket

I've heard of the bloodworm, but not the crickets. Did you ever feed the snails?

I'm looking foward to these little guys/gals. They have quite the personality, from what I've read.

[cocoa_pleco]

i had lots of snails in my 33g, they never cared for them. I had a Large puffer and a baby. The large one only cared for my crickets. Its kinda a personality thing, since my crickets were meant for the african butterfly, but my goldfish, angels, and puffers stole them.

[kimmers318]

Some puffers more than others will eat snails, my suvatti hasn't touched any since he came home with me and started getting better food.
Dwarf puffers do well on a diet of mostly frozen bloodworms and snails. Sand substrate in my opinion is better, not for the dp's since you will find they tend to rest on large plant leaves, but for ease of snail shell removal. Some dps will crunch the smaller snails up, but the larger ones they just suck the meat out of them. Most will also eat frozen mysis or brine shrimp, although mine are pretty picky, they won't even touch frozen krill. Live blackworms and brine shrimp are usually taken, although always remember that brine is not a good staple food, more of a treat, and stray blackworms can live in the aquarium.
Good luck with your dp's it will be a nice tank.

[Heckler]

can the Dwarf Puffers live in a community tank or do they need to be in their own tank?

[holbritter]

They should definately be in their own tank.

[kimmers318]

It is not recommended that dp's share a tank with a community of fish as they WILL nip the fins off. I made that mistake with my first dp and although all was fine for a couple of weeks she managed to shred several fish overnight! Alot of people have had success (myself included) with otos, adfs and even a few with small plecos. My 3 are relatively calm, don't even touch a ghost shrimp, but don't put them with other community fish.
Other larger puffers will kill just about anything. My 1 inch congo puff baby killed a 4 inch bristlenose! I planned on moving Poppy to another tank after a couple of weeks and never thought a 1 inch fish could take on and kill a 4 inch fish! Big mistake!
Sometimes it is hard, but try to get the scientific name from the LFS if you go with anything other than the standards carried by most LFS, dp, green spotted and fig8, because they are usually marked wrong, or the common name can be confusing.