Takifugu Ocellatus

Most species are very easy to keep if a few basic requirements are met... even when the natural habitat and food source of these guys are met, they still decide they are going to stop eating or just roll over one day. Hopefully Marine and yourself have much better luck with these guys, but even if you do everything right by researching and doing all of the most positive techniques found, it prob will still end bad in a few months.

I agree, a shelled nutrition would be better, but as long as the puffer is eating at the moment, I wouldn't advise trying to starve this little guy onto a new food as it may just stop eating all together... To help remove some stress the fish may feel (if the tank is in a medium to high traffic area of your residence) a good deep layer of sand would be helpful as this species will bury itself and feel much more secure

Ox

I think stress is a major factor in fishkeeping. Fish get stressed then die. Puffers are such smart fish that they exhibit phsycotic behaviors when they get stressed and die. I am going to try and add sand soon. Just worried all the commotion will piss him off. He tries to bite my hand when ever it is in the tank.

I might end up adding a Tupperware dish full of sand. I think replacing the substrate will be to stressful.
Also I do not think this fish is terribly demanding so far. Takifugu occelatus is probably good practice for me since I eventually want to try a Lagocephalus species. I have never heard of anyone keeping them. I figure a spacious tank might work. My experience with difficult species of puffers is that they do not stop eating and then die, you instead wake up one morning and they are stiff as a board. Not eating is usually attributed to stress and wrong environmental conditions. If I can figure out what irritates these puffers so much then maybe people can actually start keeping them. I think part of the reason people have such a hard time with this fish is that they get so worked up. With what everyone has been telling me about this fish I have been really worried out of my mind. When I am stressed I tend to pass it on to my fish. I end up being neurotic about water changes and fidget with the tank way too much. grabbing a test kit every two seconds cannot really do that much. If fish keeping could be done remotely I think it would stress specimens less.