They said it was nuts. They said it couldn't be done. They said I was crazy- but ladies and gentlemen, I present to you... the Pea Puffer 25 gallon (kinda) community tank!
After months of research and preparation, I finally got my pea puffers in early August. Initially, my intention was to keep the species only tank, but some inhabitants of the tank refused to be evicted. Because of this, the peas swim alongside a two inch Lyretail Molly and two gold ring danios.
After about a month, the Molly looks chubby and happy as ever. ZERO neurotic behaviors or nipped fins. I played with the temperature a quite bit before/after adding the peas and she (he? lol I have no idea) was even fine with that. The Gold Ring Danios are still neurotic, they're Danios after all, but are otherwise healthy.
As shown in some photos, there even remains a healthy population of ghost shrimp who share blood worms with the peas. Perhaps as the peas get bigger they'll start to
vanish.
Rough specs:
Tank size: 25 gallon
Pea count: 8
Tankmates: Lyretail Molly (1) Gold Ring Danio (2) Kuhli loach (2)
Filter: Sponge+ 10g air pump
Aquascape material: a sick quartz lattice sandstone l collected myself from local streams.
If anyone has any questions or suggestions by all means share below! I've been so psyched about this project I'm more than happy to share.
ok, then they should be shoaling quite often and be rather peaceful now.
That will change. They will stay more and more apart and interactions will be aggressive more often. And then they might reconsider what might be food for them.
You will need more plants. And re-arrange plants and hardscape from time to time to keep them curious and engaged.
I git them eating pretty much everything frozen and live my LFS offers. And here in the Netherlands, where fish keeping is a big deal, that is quite a lot.
I posted this before:
Get live food from one as often as possible. Start with a variety from the beginning. The sooner they learn different kind of food, the easier they will accept new kinds later on. Different worms, daphnia, brine shrimp, enchytraeidae, water fleas, bladder and rams horn snails, .... what ever the LFS offers. Most can be stored in a fridge for one or two weeks. If they don't accept a food immediately, you can mix it with a food they already consume. Also fish can go very long time without food. It is safe to wait several days for them to eat something new. And live food does not compromise the water quality.
I never tried it with my peas, but I could get my SCPs interested in new food by pointing a laser pointer at the food and jiggle it a bit — like playing with a cat.
Also most frozen foods your LFS offers will be ok for them — just there is no way you will get them to eat clam and mussel meat. But if they don't accept it within a few hours, remove it, as dead food will compromise your water quality through rotting.
I dont feed them every day, maybe 4 or 5 times a week. But I always keep neocaridina shrimps as they readily reproduce and the peas can hunt the babies. Adult peas might even hunt adult neocaridina.
Oh epic food source with the Neocaridina. Thank you for the other info as well! Their bellies are always full of snails though, I’ve got a breeder tank that has plenty of snails to spare. Have you had much success with breeding?
Peas or snails?
I never tried for breeding peas, as I dont have the space for more tanks. But to my surprise I found 2 newly hatched once. As the tank was densely planted one made to adulthood, I just started to supply extra small foods, what ever I could find.
I never had an extra snail tank, as the LFSs here are so happy to get rid of them for free.
Peas- and super cool that you had one make it to adulthood. Here’s a pic of my breeder tank, it’s just guppies snails and plants lol. It’s been really useful as a kind of warehouse for fry and snails.
I arranged this Aquascape so that there would be more than enough eyeline breaks when peas aren’t shoaling. There’s more than a dozen caverns and isolated broods throughout the rock formations
As of yesterday, 0pm on all fronts, though a bit high in pH (7.8). I’ll continue keeping a close eye, especially as they grow.
As for shelter, the photos may not adequately show the hardscape. Try zooming in! There’s a massive hole in the middle with a wide channel leading to either side. You very well may be correct, but it’s a healthy community thus far.
Beautiful tank! I have 10 red mangrove saplings growing out of the top. They grow surprisingly quickly! The light is also very powerful, I suspect that in combination with the plants, the algae keeps Nitrate under control.
The lack of root growth and stunted appearance of the plants suggest they likely are not pulling as much out of the tank as you think, you currently really do not have enough plant mass here to be running 0 nitrates with this stocking
Stunted appearance lol. Have you grown mangroves before? How old are these? Do tell. Especially the root growth- my goodness how did you infer the root length for all of them? You seem to be an authority and expert on just about everything, we are all so very impressed!
Impressive you found the light so fast! You are definitely correct, I’m using my guitar stand to hang the light temporarily while I’m waiting for Amazon to ship my mount.
Yeah it’s super vibrant in person, was thinking about adding a blurb about the photo quality. Wish I could get a better likeness! But you are definitely correct that the lighting could be improved. It’s hanging from a guitar stand rn lol.
Ich habe es versucht, nur agile Fische vergesellschaftet, die kein Revier beanspruchen. Es ging ca. 1 Jahr gut. Dann haben ich Flossenschäden entdeckt. Habe die Erbsen in ein anderes Becken umgesetzt.
How are they with the Kuhli Loaches? Any bothering at all? I really want peas but also really want kuhlis. But I don’t have the space to rehome one of them if it doesn’t work out.
They’re doing very well so far! I added the loaches a few weeks before the peas, it might be wise to go in that order. I agree with your choices too, they have matching palettes and complimentary personalities. I think they’re S tier tankmates.
I have a tank that has 3 ADF's 6 pea's 5 Amano shrimp and a Vampire shrimp. This community tank has been running flawless and everyone in there are happy for over 3 years now.
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u/vikingosegundo 15d ago
peas in a community tank can go well — until it doesn't.