Pufferpack
Fish Herder
Intro:
Puffers are a fairly small group of fish, estimated at about 150 species. The bulk of the puffer species are marine fish (SW) including a few that are found in brackish or even fresh water as juveniles. Of all the known puffer species less than 40 are considered to be Fresh Water (FW) or Brackish Water (BW) and these species can range in size from 1 inch (Indian Dwarf - Tetraodon travancorius ) to 2 1/2 feet (Mbu - Tetraodon mbu) (length not including caudal or tail fin)
All known puffers are predatory, some preying on snails , crustaceans, and shellfish by actively hunting while others are ambush predators of other fish(piscivores), and in captivity most puffers can be trained to eat frozen foods along with live. Although I have seen reports of puffer keepers having limited success with dried or flake foods it is rare and not usually long term.
The strongest characteristic of the puffer family is the fusion of their teeth into 4 bony plates, two upper, two lower, accompanied by strong jaws they are well equiped to crush the hard shells or bones of their prey.
Another common attribute of the puffer family is the loss of their pelvic fins. Puffers swim mainly through the use of their pectoral fins, with added guidance of their symmetrically positioned dorsal and anal fins. Although they can employ the body/caudal fin propulsion used by most fish, for short bursts of speed, the caudal fin generally serves as a rudder for routine swimming.
Puffers are scaleless and their bodies tend to be chunky (most covered with spines which are not always appearant) with small soft gill openings near the pectoral fins. They have the ability to inflate their bodies with water when threatened, which makes them appear larger and erects their spines making them less appetizing to predators. If this doesn't deter the predator, the puffers get the final revenge, as puffers are toxic. As far as I know all Puffers (to varying degrees) produce Tetraotoxin, one of the more potent toxins produced in nature.
Puffers are a long lived species, with proper care they should live upwards of 15 years or more. They are a highly personable and intelligent fish as a whole, with very distinct and individual personalities. They are blessed/cursed with being "cute" and "irresistable", with their buggie eyes and perpetual smiles you can't help falling for them, but BEWARE of adding puffers to a community tank. Puffers, especially the active hunters, are in general not trustworthy with tankmates, there are exceptions, over short periods of time, or with good personalities some puffers do fare well in a community setting, but long term mixed tanks are rare.
These fish are similar to Cichlids in that they are intelligent and adaptable, long lived and slow to mature (especially without proper diet and water conditions), when they do mature their whole personality and disposition can change. Some individuals of many commonly kept species will be big softies and get along with everyone. Others may be mischevious and only start trouble once in a while. While still others will snap and decimate everything in the tank. That is within a single species, some species such as the South American - Colomesus asellus tend to be more mild and can be kept with other fish with a minimum of damage, maybe a little fin nipping. While at the other extreme we have the Fahaka Puffer - Tetraodon lineatus , most often described as "A fish on crack". They should not be kept with any other fish and will not tolerate their own kind. In fact, Al Castro from the Aquarium Fish Magazine once wrote, "I have no idea how they can get close enough to each other to breed."
Puffers in local fish stores are often mislabeled, and the salespeople in the lfs are generally even less informed about this group of fish than almost any other. They will probably assure you that these fish are at home in a small or medium community tank (the same way they recomend Columbian Shark Catfish or Oscars) If you are considering purchasing puffers, even more than most fish you need to do your reserch before you buy.
For some of the more commonly found BW such as Green Spotted or Figure 8 puffers and FW such as Indian Dwarf, South American, Red-Eye, the best site for quick info and Identification that I have found so far is :
Pufferfish.Uk
A good site for General Info with some good pics and links is: Puffer Lair
Another site for excellent info is The Fugu Genomics Project
and probably the best text reference is Aqualog's "The puffers of fresh and brackish waters" by Dr. Klaus Ebert
Water Conditions
Puffers in general tend to be quite adaptable to water conditions and can do well at pretty much any Ph/Gh/Kh, but FW puffers are just that, fresh water throughout their lives, and pushing a FW puffer into BW conditions, while it may survive, is not going to be healthist thing for it.
Brackish water puffers are harder to pin down, many are sold as FW, and some such as Green Spotted Puffers are known to live in FW when juveniles but need BW once mature. If kept in FW they will be subject to many diseases, will show poor coloration and are likely to be stunted in growth. Even if purchased in FW they should be moved to light brackish (specific gravity 1.002-1.008) gradually over the course of a week while they are in quarantine.
All puffers need quarantine as the bulk of puffers sold at this time are wild caught, and may suffer from internal parasites, as well they tend to get transported overcrowded (resulting in nips, bites, and stress), and subjected to multiple water changed of different hardness and Ph so would be more succeptable to picking up Ich or a Fungus.
Although puffers are basically hardy, they are easily stressed by the un-oxydized metabolites in uncycled tanks and it is therefore NOT recomended that puffers be used to cycle a tank....from what I have read most don't survive the experience without constant care and fussing by their keeper throughout the complete cycle.
Tank Set Up
When setting up your puffer tank make sure you have lots of plants/caves/logs etc for them to sleep in, mine seem to choose 2 or 3 different sleeping spots to call their own. If you have more than one puffer in the tank you will want to break up the lines of sight (the puffers sight not yours) as much as possible to cut down the territory each puffer feels the need to defend and help reduce the aggression levels.
In my tank I placed plants in a semi circle around the back and sides and put 4 caves (I used shot glasses for caves and covered them with sand) in the open space at the front. I also contoured the sand in the open space so that there are hills and valleys, this seems to have cut down on the chasing and nipping quite a bit.
I also removed some of the plant parts from their base and let them float freely on the surface, the Dwarf pack loves to play hide and seek in the floaters and will ride the plants as they spiral through the current from my filter.....looks like great fun.
Feeding
While the exact diet of your pufferfish will vary according to its species, most of them eat similar food. Puffers in the wild eat a variety of different food items, and it's important to vary the diet of your fish as well. Personally, I vary the diet of my puffers between live snails, frozen bloodworms, and frozen Brine and Mysis shrimp
One of the first decisions you'll have to make is whether to feed your puffer live food or not. Live food is more nutritious than prepared food, and puffs like it much better. Live shrimp and snails are among the delicacies of a puffer, as you'll see when you drop them into the tank. Certain live food, such as snails, is actually a must for pufferfish, since it not only nourishes them, but wears down their constantly growing teeth. Without hard shells to crunch, their teeth slowly grow to a point where they can no longer fit food into their mouths. If you have ever seen a puffer "yawn" you'll realize this may take some time, since it is capable of opening its mouth quite wide. Regardless, it was made to crush shells with those teeth, and it needs to!
Frozen food is usually free of parasites and bacteria (check the package for pasteurization). Of course, it does have to be defrosted before being put into your tank. Just be sure you use your aquarium's water (or dechlorinated water from your water change bucket) for this. I normally use a shot glass I can fill with water or dip into my tank, then let it defrost before giving it to my fish.
Sexing/Breeding Puffers
Depending on the species of puffer you are looking at there can be a marked difference in the coloring and patterns between males and females, or they may be indistinguishable (Figure 8's for example), once again all I can recomend is do your research before buying. Some species like Dwarfs do better with a two or three female to one male ratio, while others pair off.
There are some accounts out there of successful puffer breeders if you look hard enough. The best account I have been able to find on breeding Dwarf Puffers is Dwarf Puffer
What To Look For When Purchasing Puffers
Puffers appearance in coloration is not as stable as many of the other fish we are used to seeing in the aquarium hobby, most have "sleep" colors that are both paler and sharper than their "daytime" markings. this coloration may be similar to that shown when the fish is stressed or unwell. Some species will display the coloration of females when juveniles and suddenly turn male in coloration, markings, and tempermant when mature.
When choosing a puffer for purchase look for the best color and some evidence of being fed (shy away from the ones with a grey cast and sunken bellies, as they are probably suffering from internal parasites and other illnesses). Dark bellies on white or light bellied puffers is a sign of stress or ill health. Seeing this infrequently in your puffer is not cause for alarm, but seeing it routinely or regularly means attention should be given to potential trouble developing.
When catching your puffers try to make sure they don't get exposed to the air, as this could cause them to gulp air which could result in an air bubble being trapped inside forcing you to :burp" the puffer so that it can once again swim properly. IMO the best way to ensure this doesn't happen use a net to catch the fish, but rather than lifting them out of the tank, place a clean container into the tank and place the net (still in the water) into the container, then lift boh out of the tank, leaving the puffer fully submerged the whole time.
Well I hope this answers most of the questions anyone has, and if I have left anything out I would welcome the information. The more I can learn, the more I can help.
Enjoy your Puffers
