setting up my first dwarf puffer tank, finally! i was wondering if anyone has ever tried keeping gambusia with dps, since they're fairly quick and can hold their own with fish much larger than them. the two i have are pretty small and like to hide, so maybe they'd be okay in with the dps in a ten gallon if there were plenty of plants and hiding places. the total in the tank would be a few ghost shrimp, 3 dps, two small gambusia, and an otocinclus (possibly two). thoughts?

I am new to DP's (and this forum) myself but not to fishkeeping. I just thought I would throw my two cents in, but I am not an expert by any means. Take my advice for what you feel it's worth. Also check out the FAQ on the main page. The page creators and forum folks are second to none.

3 puffs in a ten gal may be okay if, in the end, 2 are female and 1 is male. I say this because they are relatively cool until they grow up. Once they do, I notice mine becoming quite a bit more feisty. Luckily I bought four of them 2 months ago and ended up with 3 females and 1 male (I hope, but the jury is still out on the sex of one of them). Imagine you had to live out your life in a tank with another man and a woman. You would much rather be with 2 women and have no sexual competition. 3 puffs of any sex would be pushing it in a 10 though. I have no personal experience with Gambusia. They seem to resemble a Molly. I will have to read up on them.

As far as tank buddies, ottos are schooling and you should have at least 3 or 4 of them together. 10 gal is pushing it there too. Then throw in shrimp and the Gambusia and you are overstocked, in my humble opinion. I feel I am pushing humane limits with 4 DPs, 3 Ottos and a ghost shrimp in a 15 gal. They all get along great. If I subtracted 5 gal from my tank, that would change. Believe it or not, smaller tanks often require higher levels of maintenance too.

I've never tried this fish specifically, but I used to have a bumblebee goby that worked really well, it was fairly territorial, and i would say it bulllied the dp more than the dp bullied him. From googling this fish really quickly it looks like a guppy, which makes me want to say it probably wont work. But then again, i've never owned a gambusia.

Overstocked, and will only get moreso with live-bearers in there. Dps each behave differently, one puffer or batch may be OK with active swimming fish, another may make it's life work to chase them an nip their tails.

okay, thanks for the advice... it sounds like the general consensus is that it won't work. yes, i am going for a male and two females, and if i need to, i have an empty tank one of them can go in if there's a problem. it seems that a lot of people here keep just one otocinclus in a ten gallon, which is pobably what i'll do... also, gambusia are pretty much the wild variety of guppies. the difference is they are quick, darting fish with short, plain fins. also, although i do have a male and a female, they're not breeding yet. if they did, their babies would be going in a different tank than the ten gallon.

The gambusia will eat all the food and your dps will starve. The gambusia are fast fish but they are also big eater. DPs are slower at swooping in on food. Otherwise, in a big enough tank those two could probably co-exist as long as you don't have a breeding pair of dps.