Dwarf Pufferfish

Carinotetraodon travancoricus

Also known as: Pea puffer, Pygmy puffer, Malabar puffer, Indian dwarf puffer

Water Parameters

• Temperature: 23–28°C
• pH: 6.5–7.8
• Hardness (GH): 71–214 ppm (4–12 dGH)

Values above are general hardness (GH). For carbonate hardness (KH), the buffer that keeps pH stable, see the water parameters guide.

Care Summary

The smallest pufferfish in the trade and the only one that lives in pure fresh water, the dwarf puffer is a true personality in a tank: it hovers, swivels its eyes independently, and tracks movement outside the glass like nothing else its size. That charm comes with real demands. It will not thrive on dry food and needs a steady supply of small live or frozen meaty foods, along with hard-shelled snails to wear down its constantly-growing beak; a colony of pest or ramshorn snails kept as a feeder culture solves both problems at once. Add to that its incompatibility with almost any tankmate and you have a fish that rewards a dedicated nano setup rather than a slot in a community tank. Widely available in Australia and genuinely engaging, but a commitment, not an impulse buy.

Tankmates

Best kept as a species-only tank. Despite its size, the dwarf puffer is a territorial micro-predator that nips fins and hunts invertebrates, so it cannot be trusted with the small, slow, or shrimp-and-snail tankmates its size might suggest. A single puffer is content alone; for a group, allow roughly one fish per 19 to 23 litres with heavy planting and broken sightlines to diffuse aggression, and expect to rehome surplus males if a dominance order turns violent. Some experienced keepers add fast, upper-water dither fish in a large, densely-planted tank, but this is a calculated risk rather than a recommendation. Note that puffers and snails do not coexist: the snails are food.

Avoid keeping with

• Betta
• Guppy
• Neon Tetra
• Bronze Corydoras
• Cherry Shrimp
• Amano Shrimp
• Nerite Snail
• Mystery Snail
• Angelfish
• Fin Nippers

Common Problems

• overgrown beak without hard-shelled snails to graze
• refusal of dry food (requires live or frozen meaty foods)
• aggression toward tankmates and within groups
• internal parasites common in wild-caught stock

Sources: seriouslyfish.com, fishbase.org · Last updated: 2026-06-20