How Many Pea Puffers in a 40 Gallon Tank?

Last Updated on February 11, 2022 by cmoarz

How many pea puffers in a 40-gallon tank are appropriate before it becomes a stocking issue? There’s quite a bit that goes into figuring out how many you can fit in a tank comfortably, from aggression factors to swimming space. Let’s get started.

How many pea puffers can you put in a tank

Pea puffers get a bad rap. Everything thinks they’re hyper-aggressive, but in ideal conditions, that’s not true.

At most you may see males fighting on occasion for dominance, But with enough females in the mix, there should be much less aggression overall.

A general soft rule for puffers is 5 gallons per pea puffer. With a 40 gallon, you could easily get 9-10 puffers in here without much fuss and only the occasional chasing.

However, there are some things you will need in order to facilitate these many puffers into one tank.

40 gallons is big for pea puffers, But if you want real numbers you’re going to need to make some adjustments to the tank in order to make it feasible.

Things puffers will need in large numbers

In order to keep aggression to a minimum with a lot of puffers in one tank, You will need to have a very heavily planted tank.

The more plants, the better. They will make the environment much more forgiving to your puffers and they love them!

A lot of live rock is going to be a great addition as well because a lot of cover in a big tank will do wonders for your pea’s confidence.

When you put it all together this creates a nice atmosphere for all your puffers and they won’t have the stress of chasing everyone down.

Other things to consider when stocking a giant tank

One other thing to think about is flow. A large, heavily planted tank will naturally slow the flow of water and this can cause problems if you don’t account for it.

It’s recommended that you have a powerhead or two turned on for several hours in the morning and in the evening. That should account for any differences in inflow and make sure everything is cool in there.

Ideally, the flow isn’t too strong as puffers don’t like strong flow. While they can certainly build speed, they aren’t considered strong swimmers.

To make sure your puffers are comfortable they need to be able to rest somewhere without being swept away.

As you might have guessed, It’s also a good idea to have some structure in the tank for them to hide under. Providing lots of rock work is ideal, but if that isn’t possible use other structures like PVC pipe or big flower pots to create some cool hiding spots for your puffers.

The right equipment can go a long way!

You should also avoid stocking any other fish into a tank with this many puffers. This is a puffer tank, and any additional fish may cause aggression and fin nipping.

With this many puffers in the tank, you will also want a steady supply of live foods such as snails.

There should always be a healthy population of snails in the tank they can snack on and be kept well fed in addition to their normal feeding times.

It’s best to have a separate tank for snail breeding as you will be unable to breed them inside the tank with the puffers.

If you can meet all of these prerequisites for keeping this many puffers in one tank, then go ahead and fill it up!

You will be sure to have an interesting time watching the peas interact with each other and make your own little family of pufferfish.