Carinotetraodon travancoricus - Breeding
This is how we do it...
... a big tank, a smaller one, air driven filters, moss and plenty of life food of various sizes.
Spawning tank
Water parameters
The water parameters don't seem to be critical for ordinary keeping. Untill recently we blended tap water with osmosis water to ca. 2°dkH. In the beginnig we didn't have much success with harder water (gH 10, kH 8). But now in our new tank the dwarf puffers are spawning also in hard water.
Tank setup
The right tank size is a quite argueable subject. It definetly works out in smaller tanks too. We had puffers spawning in a 60 cm tank. But we definetly think a bigger tank is the better solution- e.g. 200L (55 gal). The tank should be densly planted and well structured. Things work out better if the puffers have more room and have the option to avoid each other. This means less stress for the fish and manifests itself in a totally different behavior.
We keep 3 puffers in our spawning tank - 1 male, 2 females. But many puffer owners work with differnent approaches concerning group size. The really important issue in our opinion is having an single species tank. Often it might work out with some shrimps oder small, calm fish. But generally it is very important that the dwarf puffers don't fell disturbed or threatend.
Feeding
The puffers should be fed with a big variety of differend food. You can definetly see that they come to life with life food.
Daphnia, snails, booldworms, shrimps, amphipods, stonefly larvae...
It is great advantage to have some smaller tanks at hand to breed or store life food. The usual pack of daphniae ismuch more than a trio of dwarf puffers needs for a few days.
A bowl of moss...
Dwarf puffers usually spawn on moss or similar substates. Since the eggs do not stick, they fall into or through the moss. Since these eggs are very small and transparent, it's not easy to collect them. Therefore we just put a small glass bowl with some java moss into the tank. This bowl with the moss can be easily rinsed out in the breeding tank. If you go for a high yield, rinse the bowl very oft (twice a day). Since the adult females are spawn predators. Although the males usually try to protect the spawn ... they are not really got at it.
Breeding tank
Tank setup
A smal tank like 12 oder 25l is well suited as breeding tank. Additionally we recommend to use a plexi-glass box suspended on the aquarium pane. That way it is easyer to separate bigger fry from the smaller ones. Young dwarf puffers tend to be cannibalistic as soon as soon as the difference in size permitts it. But to constantly raise all the eggs a pair of adult fish produce you need to devide the fry puffers into more than one group.
We don't use a bottom substrate to make cleaning easyier. We just put some Java moss into the tank and the plexi-glass box.
We use an air pump driven filter in the breeding tank itself and one without a sponge to circulate the water through the plexi-glass box. A good water circulation is essential to meet the high oxigen demand of the fry fish.
We use 4 mm tube and some valves to supply all filters as well as our artemia breeding with onel membrane pump.
Water parameters
In the breeding tanks we had quite positive experience with very soft water. We further add an indian almond leaf. This proctecs the spawn from fungal decay. We start the breeding tanks with some water from another aquarium, hoping that this will result in a faster growth of microorganisms. The tank should be cycled a longer than other aquaria to ensure a stable conditions.
Other people breeding dwarf puffers report that it works best around ~27°C. It word out with our puffers and we never saw any need change the temperature.
Development
Eggs
Dwarf Puffer egg, after ca. 4 days
First the eggs are transparent and turn brownish-red during the following days. If the eggs turn fungal, they have to be removed.
Size: 1,5mm
The eggs hatch after 5 – 6 days.
1st Week
Food: none
Size: 2 ~ 2,5 mm (just like an egg plus a tail fin)
Just a few minutes after hatching.
This fry is a few days old. It's just over 2 mm. During the first few days the frys don't move and feed from their yolc bag. Technically they can already swimm. But usually they just lay on the ground...
... ~ 1 week old.
2nd Week
Food: Microworms, later also brine shrimps larvae
Size: 4mm
Now the fry puffers swimm through the tank and actively search for food.
3rd Week
Food: Microworms, brine shrimp larvae
Size: 6 mm
4th Week
Food: Microworms, brine shrimp larvae, small daphniae
Size: 7 mm
5th ~ 6th Week on
Food: Brine shrimp larvae, daphniae, snails, small bloodworms
Size: 8-9 mm
During this time you can try to feed smaller frozen bloodworms.
2 Months and older
Food: Snails, bloodworms, small amphipods, etc. ...more and more like the adults
Size: 12 mm
