Puffer Fish

[laurasmithuk]

hi all, have just got my sticky little mits on a 45 litre tank.

thinking of puffer fish for stocking but dont have a clue!

what sort could i stock with?

 

[AMS]

If I'm correct 45 liter is 12 US gallons. There are many puffers to choose from, freshwater, brackish, and saltwater. I am assuming you want either a freshwater, or possibly a brackish. For a tank of that size, up to 3 dwarf puffers would be great (freshwater by the way). And if you go brackish, a single figure 8 puffer would work out quite nicely.

Puffers are big messy eaters, so good filtration is required. They are on of the most fascinating fish the own. Like all fish that you want to buy, READ READ and READ some more before you buy.

 

[Nevergone815]

AMS sums it up very nicely. good advise.

 

[Jason_kenny88]

can people please be aware that puffers can be very aggresive and most types can only be kept on there own, i mean just one fish!!, many donot make good community fish they will rip the others to shreds. be carefull please.

 

[pica_nuttalli]

can people please be aware that puffers can be very aggresive and most types can only be kept on there own, i mean just one fish!!, many donot make good community fish they will rip the others to shreds. be carefull please.

while your reminder is good and accurate, please be aware that the above mentioned dwarf puffers can be kept in groups provided enough space is available

but definitly no other tank mates besides (maybe) shrimps or otos.

 

[AMS]

Shrimp with any kind of puffer (including dwarves) wont last too long. I dont really think even "maybe" is a possibility. But like pica siad, otos seem to fair well, as do bumble bee gobies (as long as the water is hard and alkeline, but obviously no salt for the puffers).

but definitly no other tank mates besides (maybe) shrimps or otos.

 

[pica_nuttalli]

actually, i've seen mixed reports of keeping shrimps with dwarf puffers. i wouldn't expect nice things for the shrimp as soon as the first one gets munched, but it doesn't hurt to give it a shot.

of course, i wouldn't attempt it with expensive shrimp.

 

[phlawed]

actually, i've seen mixed reports of keeping shrimps with dwarf puffers. i wouldn't expect nice things for the shrimp as soon as the first one gets munched, but it doesn't hurt to give it a shot.

of course, i wouldn't attempt it with expensive shrimp.

every puffr differs which is what makes them great. It is like getting a dog, evn though one acts a one way, ou cant expect the next to act the same. That being said, one puffer might eat an entire school of ghost shrimp in one night. Then agian, it might not eat a single shrimp for 6 months giving your shrimp plenty of time to grow and mature

 

[nmonks]

Not all puffers are psychotic maniacs. I've kept the brackish to marine species Arothron hispidus with scats and monos without any problems at all. In my soft water aquarium I have a South American puffer that gets along fine with cardinals and other small fish. It is a bit bullied by a ram (Mikrogeophagus ramirezi), and the glassfish steal its food, but otherwise it's seems to be happy and healthy and has been there for almost a year now.

I have a theory that the aquarium itself is a factor. In the wild, puffers live in complex habitats, and when you watch them, you see that they are constantly swimming up and down rockwork, plants, and so on. Last summer I spent some time trying to catch some North American estuarine species in Florida, and it was fun to see that how they live, and how we tend to maintain them, is completely different.

So, my theory is that because my tank is busy (not overstocked, but with lots of small fish at every level) and filled with plants and rocks, the puffer has to work to find its food. Most of the food gets stolen by the other fish, or the puffer gets pushed away from the feeding area by the ram, so the puffer has to hunt for bits of food that the other fish have missed. This reproduces more closely their natural lifestyle, which doesn't involve having choice items dumped in front of them! In the wild, they are constantly nipping at plants and rocks and oyster shells hoping for a morsel of food (hence the fast-growing teeth).

There were some species that got fin-nipped, and those were removed, so what is left is stuff that is either too fast (tetras, glassfish, halfbeaks) or able to respond in kind when annoyed (ram, Panaque, upside-down cats). That seems to work. One advantage with the South American puffer is that is relatively peaceful to begin with. It is also nitrate-tolerant, so you don't need to be paranoid about overstocking the aquarium.

That said, I keep my male + female (not yet a pair!) red-tail, red-eye puffers in a 33 litre tank with a trio of Otocinclus. I'm not quite ready to risk keeping these in a community tank yet!

Cheers,

Neale

 

[chris_1127]

just out of interest how do your irrubescos get on with each other in the 10 gallon tank neale? i know theyre supposed to be a bit different in terms of temprament but i am pretty sure that if i kept my lortetis together in that size of tank they would have ripped each other to pieces by now.

 

[nmonks]

They get on okay. Mostly they hide under bogwood, with the male clearly the bully. The female is on the other side of the tank most of the time. Periodically he chases her, but no harm seems to be done any more. At the beginning she had a little nip-damage to her tail, but she seems fine now. Sometimes they swim about, if not actually together, then certainly without any overt tension. In the morning, they will both be at the front, waiting for breakfast.

I just went to check on them, and they're hovering at the front of the tank, seemingly at peace. The male spends a lot of time with his head downwards, which is odd. Not sure what that's about, but I mean he's swimming on his head, like an upside-down seahorse. Never seen the female do that. But her tummy is nice and round, so she's eating happily.

Sometimes the female sleeps in the floating plants, particularly at night. She may do this because she is smaller than the male, and so fits in better, or the male doesn't let her take any of the nice caves below. But as the days pass, they seem to be getting along better and better. I'm sure the male has made a nest -- a day can go by and I don't see him, even at feeding time. Hopefully, when the female gets a bit bigger, they'll spawn.

They honestly don't strike me as particularly troublesome. They have completely ignored the Otocinclus.

Cheers,

Neale

just out of interest how do your irrubescos get on with each other in the 10 gallon tank neale? i know theyre supposed to be a bit different in terms of temprament but i am pretty sure that if i kept my lortetis together in that size of tank they would have ripped each other to pieces by now.

 

[chris_1127]

a lot of the time i wouldnt even know the lortetis are there - they have taken to hiding in the middle of bogwood and plants and feeding time is the only guaranteed time to see them. hwoever theyre in a 25 gallon tank and with the aggression they show when they do see each other i definitely couldnt keep them in anything smaller. as with yours the male is the really aggressive one, but the female dishes it out a bit too. I found that they completely ignored oto's, dwarf puffers and rubbernose/bulldog plecs... so far (over 15 months)