Aquarium Setup

In captivity, they are not too picky about water parameters. As long as extremes are avoided, your fish should do just fine. Spawns have been reported by many hobbyists in both hard and soft water with a recorded pH both slightly above and slightly below neutral. I have kept and bred them in water with a neutral to slightly basic pH, a total hardness around 125 ppm (with about half of that coming from carbonates), and a temperature in the mid to upper 70s (F).

It does appear that clean water is important. Keep the dissolved organics and nitrates low by doing large regular water changes, especially if you are keeping them in smaller tanks. If you provide them with clean water and the right foods, dwarf puffers will reward you with many years of unique behavior.

These fish prefer well-planted tanks with some areas where each male can set up his territory. They do well in smaller tanks, and a pair or trio can be kept in a desktop tank. A good filter helps maintain water quality, but make sure the flow isn’t too strong. Puffers in general are not strong swimmers and seem to prefer areas with lesser water flow. I use sponge filters in my tanks where I can adjust the flow from practically nothing to a raging torrent. For the puffers, I keep the flow at a fairly slow rate.

Aggression

Most of the dwarfs that I’ve kept have been pretty easygoing (other than the occasional territorial display or fin nip), but other aquarists have reported incidents of aggression. According to these reports, males especially can be quite nasty toward their conspecifics. If a fish is injured, it is a good idea to move it to a separate tank for treatment, as the other fish will begin picking at its wound until the injured fish dies. While certain individual dwarfs can show these aggressive tendencies, in my experience aggressive dwarf puffers are not common.

C. travancoricus can be kept in community tanks with small fish. I have read several accounts where they have nipped the fins of slow-swimming fish, so keep that in mind when choosing tankmates. I have not witnessed anything more than an occasional nipped fin among their tankmates, except when there is a spawn. Even so, I prefer to keep them in a tank by themselves just so I can watch their unique behavior. In my experience I have found dwarf puffers to be hardy, peaceful once settled in, and long lived. I have enjoyed keeping at least a small group of them for most of the past decade.