Colomesus Puffer

[Rory the cat]

I've just bought a lovely little Colomesus, and I'm currently striving to make him a happy boy in my little community tank.

He seems quite settled so far. Information on Colomesus Puffers seems somewhat hard to come by. There is a chap at one of the LFS who is a bit of a Puffer fanatic, so he's given me some advice.

My plans are to feed him on snails (LFS gave me a Ramshorn) and frozen meaty food such as bloodworm, Daphnia, Mosquito Larvae etc etc, as well as live Daphnia.

I've rearranged my tank to have lots of cover & hiding places. He appears to have colonised one side of the tank and has dug himself a little bed in the gravel under some plants.

His behaviour ranges from swimming about the tank happily (particularly seems to enjoy riding the air bubbles from my air stone up the tank, swimming down and doing it again); lying still, but very watchful, in the gravel; swimming madly up against the glass (since I have rearranged the tank that has ceased - I understand that this is a sign of boredom); and funny moments where he darts about like greased lightning and really erratic.

His colours look good during the day and his belly is a nice white colour - all good indicators I have heard. He hasn't eaten yet, but I have only put a snail in so far. I plan on giving him some bloodworm tomorrow to get him going.

Does this all sound right? Am I doing the right things and does his behaviour sound normal? I was a little worried about the erratic swimming - it really is very fast. Is this stress, or is it fairly normal for this fish?

Any advice most appreciated.

 

[diVer]

While I don't have any Colomesus puffers my dwarfs do swim in short, quick bursts.

 

[arctickev]

no thats the way they are! crazy little things never stop.
the only thing i'd do is get him a couple of pals. mine swim in a little group and seem to like each others company.

kev

 

[CFC]

The colosamus puffers do preffer to be in a small group of their own species, theyre not really recomended for communities as they can be quite nippy. They have the fastest growing teeth of any FW puffer species and need to fed regular helpings of hard crunchy foods such as snails and other shelled foods like mussels and cockles to prevent their teeth from becoming too large, if this happens you will have to trim the teeth by hand!

 

[Rory the cat]

They have the fastest growing teeth of any FW puffer species and need to fed regular helpings of hard crunchy foods such as snails and other shelled foods like mussels and cockles to prevent their teeth from becoming too large, if this happens you will have to trim the teeth by hand!

Cockles and Mussles - like on the fish counter at the supermarket?

Should I do anything to them before adding to the tank?

He's ignoring the snails I've added (Ramshorn, as suggested by LFS).

 

[Rory the cat]

The colosamus puffers do preffer to be in a small group of their own species, theyre not really recomended for communities as they can be quite nippy.

Ooh interesting. This totally contradicts the advice given by both of my LFS. They told me to only have one at a time as they don't like being with their own kind! They said a tank with anything bigger than a jumbo neon should be fine.

So far he's ignored the other fish, unless they have gone for him in which case he has retaliated. So far the Sciss and one of the Corys has had a go and realised it isn't such a good idea. Otherwise he's swimming among them happily.

Do you know of any links/pics I can look at to see what I should be looking out for with his teeth? I gave him bloodworm today which he snapped up in seconds. I am being very careful with food at present as I have an ammonia spike in the tank for some reason at present (probably owing to the new fish).

 

[Pufferpack]

I've got 3 Colomesus puffers together in a 35 gal tank, and they are always active, sometimes traveling in a little pack, other times exploring alone. Of all my puffers they are the least aggressive, but they are still puffers. Bubba and Bumblebee don't bother the other inhabitants very much, but Hunter (got his name by hunting down all the guppy fry) will hunt and eat any fish that is 1/2 inch or smaller. He tried to hunt a couple of the juvie Dwarf puffers I added to the tank a while back, but they put the run to him, so he went and found a nice little wild guppy and bit it's head off, then proceeded to eat the rest of the little gal, well at least he doesn't waste food.
If your puffer is ignoring the snails your best bet would be to smush one or two against the glass (in the area you usually drop the food in) and it should stimulate the puffers interrest in snails as food.
For the length of the teeth, it is pretty obvious when they are overgrown too far, the top teeth will be grown past the bottom lip and the puffer will have a hard time eating, and will be unable to close it's mouth. I have to trim the teeth on mine about every 6 months, but they don't eat nearly enough snails because the Dwarfs and Golden puffers scoop them up too quick. With a steady diet of snails you should be able to extend that time to about every 8-10 months.
Here is a link to a good article on the whole trimming proceedure

Trimming Puffers Teeth

 

[ryansfish5g]

I just added an SA Puffer (same thing as colomesus, also called peruvian puffer) to my 5 gallon HEX tank. My glo-lite tetra actually grabbed on to the tail of my puffer, which then twisted itself 360 degrees to get free. This happened twice and the puffer didnt even lunge at the tetra. He did however kill one of my pygmy cories, I am guessing b/c of its small size.

When I put the puffer into my tank I had about one hundred snails, there are probably 5 snails left after just 3 days.

The SA puffer is still pretty small, I plan on taking the other fish out of the tank eventually, but I think they are fine for now (with the exception of my other pygmy cory, which I will probably leave in anyways). Maybe I will move him to a 10 gallon one day if I think it is needed.

Thanks for sharing, please keep us updated on your puffer.

 

[ryansfish5g]

Oh, my puffer is also an erratic swimmer, he swims up and down the wall of the tank looking at his reflection. I have read this is normal, especially for a newly added puffer.