Easiest Puffers To Keep?

[karigupi]

We have our dwarf puffer tank ready & new babies will be picked up soon.

But as always I am planning ahead, we would love a tank with some larger puffers, i've searched Amazon for books on keeping puffer fish, but they seem to not exist.

So I wondered if anyone has experience of keeping larger puffers, which type would you recommend? Or could you point me in the direction of a good puffer keeping website?

I have just brought a 3ft 160ltr tank, would this be large enough for puffers? Or do I need a larger one? It will be a species tank, with no other fish.

 

[nmonks]

There are several books on puffers. For brackish water species, there's a long chapter on them in my book, and at least two pages of text in the Aqualog brackish book by Frank Schaefer. There's a little pufferfish book by Chris Ralph, and a big Aqualog book on puffers by Klaus Ebert. So, enough to be getting on with!

The hardiest pufferfish is probably the South American puffer. It's very tolerant of a range of water chemistry conditions, from soft and acidic through to slightly brackish. It's gregarious, peaceful, if occasionally nippy, and in tank your size, you could keep half a dozen without any problems at all. If the tank was planted, it would be a very fun, very different sort of aquarium.

Among the larger species, the slow-moving Tetraodon species from Asia, such as Tetraodon palembangensis, are perhaps the simplest to keep. They aren't particularly demanding in terms of space, being smaller than the African species, and when properly cared for can be quite tame. They do tend to be more finicky about water quality though, so are rather less easy to keep than the essentially hardy South American puffer mentioned above.

Cheers, Neale

 

[karigupi]

There are several books on puffers. For brackish water species, there's a long chapter on them in my book, and at least two pages of text in the Aqualog brackish book by Frank Schaefer. There's a little pufferfish book by Chris Ralph, and a big Aqualog book on puffers by Klaus Ebert. So, enough to be getting on with!

The hardiest pufferfish is probably the South American puffer. It's very tolerant of a range of water chemistry conditions, from soft and acidic through to slightly brackish. It's gregarious, peaceful, if occasionally nippy, and in tank your size, you could keep half a dozen without any problems at all. If the tank was planted, it would be a very fun, very different sort of aquarium.

Among the larger species, the slow-moving Tetraodon species from Asia, such as Tetraodon palembangensis, are perhaps the simplest to keep. They aren't particularly demanding in terms of space, being smaller than the African species, and when properly cared for can be quite tame. They do tend to be more finicky about water quality though, so are rather less easy to keep than the essentially hardy South American puffer mentioned above.

Cheers, Neale

Thank you Neale, that is really helpful I will go search out a couple of the books, I always like to add to my library.

The South American Puffer is the only one I had so far made a note of, it is a lovely looking fish & I think my lfs had some last week, so they should be pretty easy for us to get. I will do a little more research on them whilst I get my tank set up & cycling.

 

[schismy007]

There are several books on puffers. For brackish water species, there's a long chapter on them in my book, and at least two pages of text in the Aqualog brackish book by Frank Schaefer. There's a little pufferfish book by Chris Ralph, and a big Aqualog book on puffers by Klaus Ebert. So, enough to be getting on with!

The hardiest pufferfish is probably the South American puffer. It's very tolerant of a range of water chemistry conditions, from soft and acidic through to slightly brackish. It's gregarious, peaceful, if occasionally nippy, and in tank your size, you could keep half a dozen without any problems at all. If the tank was planted, it would be a very fun, very different sort of aquarium.

Among the larger species, the slow-moving Tetraodon species from Asia, such as Tetraodon palembangensis, are perhaps the simplest to keep. They aren't particularly demanding in terms of space, being smaller than the African species, and when properly cared for can be quite tame. They do tend to be more finicky about water quality though, so are rather less easy to keep than the essentially hardy South American puffer mentioned above.

Cheers, Neale

Thank you Neale, that is really helpful I will go search out a couple of the books, I always like to add to my library.

The South American Puffer is the only one I had so far made a note of, it is a lovely looking fish & I think my lfs had some last week, so they should be pretty easy for us to get. I will do a little more research on them whilst I get my tank set up & cycling.

Hi,
I have 55 puffers, 9 different species ... the South American included. I just want you to be aware that the SAP is the one puffer that more than the rest will need it's beak (teeth) trimmed at some point. I offer mine snails all the time, but they aren't interested. I've tried prawn with shell on, I've tried cockles ... but the fact is, they are mostly interested in bloodworm (frozen), but their beak will grow quicker than most other puffers. Just thought you should be made aware of that.

The Dwarf puffers are fairly easy to keep and you can keep them in a group too. They are most interesting and very active. I would be careful if you get any of the other, bigger puffers, they can bite your hand and it will hurt a great deal, and/or kill any other fish you put in with them.

If you have any other questions, feel free to message me.

Best of luck!
Suz