Pea Puffer
Carinotetraodon travancoricus
A thumbnail-sized freshwater puffer with enormous personality, best kept alone as a species tank.
Ideal Conditions
- Temperature
- 24 – 28 °C
- pH range
- 6.8 – 7.8
- Hardness
- 5 – 15 dGH
- Adult size
- 2.5 – 3.5 cm
- Min. tank size
- 40 litres+
- Lifespan
- 4 – 5 years
- Diet
- Carnivore — snails, frozen bloodworm and live foods
- Water flow
- Low
- Preferred setup
- Densely planted nano tank with broken sight lines
About the Pea Puffer
Pea Puffers are fully freshwater, unlike most puffers, and stay under 3.5 cm. They are intelligent, endlessly watchable and almost always unsuitable for a mixed community because they nip fins and hunt invertebrates.
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Is it right for your tank?
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Where Pea Puffer comes from
Native range
Western Ghats, Southern India
Countries / regions
India
Habitat
Slow, heavily vegetated freshwater rivers and lakes of Kerala and Karnataka.
Illustrative native range only, not an occurrence dataset.
Similar species
Betta
Betta splendens
Amazon Puffer
Colomesus asellus
We’re adding more full species guides as the catalogue grows.
Compatible tank mates
Reviewed guidance based on this species' recorded traits.
- Not recommended
Cherry Shrimp
Neocaridina davidi
Pea Puffers are specialist invertebrate hunters and will eat dwarf shrimp.
- Not recommended
Harlequin Rasbora
Trigonostigma heteromorpha
Persistent fin nipping makes any long-term mixed community unreliable.
- Not recommended
Kuhli Loach
Pangio kuhlii
Slow bottom dwellers are repeatedly nipped and cannot escape.
Current marketplace listings
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